About the Newhouse School's J-Camp

Welcome to the Web site for the Newhouse School's J-Camp, hosted by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

This is the first year for the program that gathered 10 local high school students to teach them the basics of writing, reporting, and multimedia journalism. Each student produced photos and videos for this J-Camp Web site. Each reported and wrote a profile of a classmate and of people in various professions. Each learned to create digital sketches. The students then posted all of these elements on to this Web site.

All in all, it was a busy week for the students and the directors of the program, Professors Charlotte Grimes, Robert Lloyd, and Sherri Taylor, as well as their teaching assistants Cassia Brooks and Wasim Ahmad and professor Sung Park.

Browse around the site and enjoy the work of the first 10 graduates of this program at Syracuse University.

"It's Showtime!"

A Day With Rick Wright from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Rylah Orr

Rick Wright talks for a living.

He talks on the radio. He talks while showing off Syracuse University. He even teaches talking on the radio.

Wright is a professor in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at SU. Among the things he teaches are radio broadcasting, broadcast management and commercial writing. He is also the senior public affairs officer for the New York Naval Militia.

His deep booming voice echoes down the school’s hallways and on the public airwaves.

On the radio, he is “Dr. Rick Wright,” as he describes himself. Wright’s signature phrase is the saying, “It’s show time!” He says it to begin his radio broadcasts, “Old School Sunday” on WPHR-FM, Power 106.9. He’s worked at several radio stations during his career. He worked for Syracuse’s WOLF, an AM rock station and left to work for rival station, WNDR.

“And then I became Rick Wright on WNDR radio,” Wright said.

At Syracuse, he is an unofficial athletic recruiter and goodwill ambassador. Wright’s commanding voice often leads visiting football players from Missouri and New Jersey around the halls of Newhouse to meet colleagues and students. He shows them the radio studio, the TV broadcasting studio and the dean’s office.

But Wright didn’t always have a public voice. He grew up in South Carolina during segregation.

“Many of the African-American schools were never equal in regards to many of the white schools. They had more money and resources,” Wright said. “We were the last of the legal segregation in the South when the Jim Crow laws were in place.”

Jim Crow laws reinforced segregation in the South and denied African Americans their basic civil rights.

He marched in protests to gain civil rights. Wright attended Elizabeth City State University, a historically black college in Elizabeth City, N. C. He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, which organized some protests of unfair business practices that kept out African Americans. Wright hoped to “break down those barriers.”

Demonstrations were not without consequences.

“I got arrested and all the other stuff that goes along with it,” he said.

The president of Elizabeth State University, Walter N. Ridley, was one of Wright’s early mentors. He had an interest in the radio field. He introduced Wright to the radio program at the university.

“He basically opened some real rights for me,” Wright said.

Now Wright teaches his own radio classes at SU. And when he’s not teaching, he’s often shepherding athletic recruits around the halls of SU.

“Each recruiting visit is different, depending on the player, depending on how I feel, regards to trying to establish a level of empathy with the young man or lady who are trying to make a very important decision to decide upon a collage that they’re going to attend,” Wright explained.

He always tells them, “It’s your time. Life goes on.”

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Bright Lights, Big Creations

Bright lights, big creations from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Arielle Kaigler-Hall

Andrew Benepe is in love with a cow.

But this cow is no ordinary cow. “Milky White” is the life-size puppet Benepe handmade painstakingly from foam and wire.

Benepe is a sculptor, fabricator and special effects expert for television, theater and film. He creates his cows and monsters in his home near Syracuse University. He built Milky White from scrap material for the Broadway revival of “Into the Woods.”

Milky White stole the show.

Benepe has built other things besides cows.

Benepe originated various designs for theater productions including Disney On Ice’s “Little Mermaid”, the Broadway production of “The Lion King” and Broadway’s “Little Shop of Horrors.” He has worked for the films “Kate & Leopold” and “Everyone Wins.”

Benepe constructed “Pumbaa,” a warthog from Broadway’s “The Lion King.” Pumbaa was designed from scratch with Benepe’s hands.

“Pumbaa from Lion King is one we really had time to work out the bugs,” Benepe said. “ That one definitely has enough difficulty but enough fun to it.”

Not all of Benepe’s work was as amusing as Pumbaa.

“Two years ago we built a three-story bunny rabbit,” Benepe said. “We had to set up it up in the hurricane.”

Benepe began his dream of designing monsters at an early age.

“Around 9, I started building puppets and stuff,” he said. Many were based on “the Muppets, monsters and anything I could copy,” Benepe said.

Benepe’s mother introduced him to art.

“My mom was an artist, so I was surrounded by art arsty-farty stuff all the time,” Benepe said.

As a teenager, Benepe spent one summer at a camp meant for older students. At the age of 13 he was working at a semi-professional level.

“In one summer I learned cast-stepping, wrought-iron work, wood carving and marionette work, all in about two months,” Benepe said. “That was probably the biggest ramp-up as far as my own technique.”

Benepe received hands-on skills by piecing materials together. Soon after graduating high school, Benepe attended a technology school that specialized in theater.

Benepe applies many inspirations into his work.

“Inspiration can come from anywhere,” Benepe said. “We’ll get reference materials, pictures of sculptors of the mood, books, pictures, museums.”

Research takes up to a week to produce a representation of a monster model, Benepe said. He starts with a miniature structure of the design. For Disney On Ice’s “ The Little Mermaid”, Benepe sculpted a 12-inch clay version of the villain, Ursula, before building the life-sized costume.

His job is draining at times, Benepe says.

“Exhaustion comes towards the end. There is a certain amount of stress,” Benepe said. “I have this looming sense of total disaster at all times. But other than that there is comradeship.”

Benepe’s upcoming projects will be featured in the films “Sherlock Holmes” and “Salt,” starring Angelina Jolie.

Despite working long hours, Benepe’s job is beneficial to his creative passion. “If anyone is thinking of this as a career choice,” he said. “I would totally endorse it.”

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One Dedicated SU Tour Guide

One dedicated tour guide from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Jamal Reed

As a tour guide at Syracuse University, Auyon Ghosh answers all types of questions.

Some are simple, just asking about the SU campus. Others, in his opinion, are just borderline weird.

“There was a student who was a junior or senior in high school and I was giving a tour and he came up to me. I had just given this talk about Greek life and he was, like, ‘So, do you have to be Greek to be part of Greek life?’” Ghosh says.

“And I looked at him and I said, ‘Clearly, you don’t. It’s just a name.’ ”

Ghosh explained that fraternities are named for Greek letters.

Ghosh has been a tour guide since last summer. A senior next year, Ghosh will graduate in 2010 majoring in physics and economics in the college of Arts and Sciences.

“Turns out, it was a really great summer job and I continued doing it throughout the year,” he said. “I love this university. Learning all about it is something I really enjoyed.”

Being a tour guide has opened up a lot of doors for Ghosh. He’s met people from all 50 states and several different countries across the world.

In the beginning, Ghosh found it challenging to get used to all the questions parents now ask.

“A lot of times somebody is going to expect you be an expert on everything,” he said.

Ghosh was on a journey to success from the start. Getting the job to pay his way through school has helped him a lot, but also put him a few steps ahead of many students.

Ghosh’s parents are from India. But he is a first-generation American and was raised in the Syracuse area. He had visited several different colleges, but he chose the university – SU – in his hometown.

Ghosh is a pre-med student at SU. He is planning to go to SUNY-Upstate Medical Center next year when he graduates. Looking forward to the future is the best thing for him, Ghosh says.

Being at Syracuse University has helped him become a better person, he said. He views life differently now that he has learned about the world at SU. He now hopes to help change what’s wrong about his community.

“When I’m done getting my career started,” said Ghosh, “I would love to come back to Syracuse University to give my special care and attention to those who need it.”

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Wasim Ahmad: Storyteller in Pictures

Wasim Ahmad: Storyteller in pictures from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Tonielle Moore

Wasim Ahmad likes telling stories through his pictures.

“You can tell a whole story by showing the look in someone’s eyes,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad, a 27-year-old graduate student at Syracuse University, is majoring in journalism and photography at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is a teaching assistant for video, graphics and photography. This summer he is a teaching assistant for J-Camp, a new program for 10 city high school students.

Ahmad is a native of Long Island and attended Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick. That’s where his English teacher introduced him to writing for the school newspaper. In college he continued his interest by working on the student newspaper at Binghamton University.

He graduated from Binghamton University, where he majored in English in the Harpur School of Arts and Sciences. After two years on his college paper, he interned and was eventually hired at Binghamton’s Press & Sun-Bulletin as a copy editor and Web editor.

One of the most interesting stories he covered, he said, was about an IBM plant that was causing pollution. A chemical, Trichloroethylene, was being dumped into the ground. Businesses were closing because nobody wanted to be near the chemical.

“It was important telling the story because it brought a problem to light that people needed to hear,” Ahmad said.

After graduating from college, Ahmad took a copy-editing job in St. Cloud, Minn., for a year and then returned to Binghamton. His photography career started there.

He started shooting videos when he was handed a camera and told to start shooting for the Web. He was pressed into service because the paper was short staffed.

Shooting video changed his career. He kept shooting to become a better shooter, Ahmad said.

One of the first videos he made was covering the flooding of the Southern Tier of New York. After covering that story he gained a passion for photography and online journalism.

“Videos and still photos can convey power, feelings and emotions,” Ahmad said.

After working in Binghamton, he moved to the Naples Daily News in Florida where he became the Web editor.

He decided to go back to school for a master’s degree, he said, because he felt that he was “practicing photography without a license” and wanted to perfect his skills.

After a year at Newhouse, he is now expanding his photography skills to include shooting a music video for a band, The Grand Concourse, from the Bronx. It shows the band performing on a rooftop and in Rockefeller State Park in Westchester County, with special effects to show a difference between dreamland and reality.

He now hopes to teach college journalism, Ahmad said, so he can teach his students to find the joy in telling people stories too.

Ahmad offers this advice for anyone with a passion for journalism or photography: “Keep writing and you will become a better writer,” he said. “And keep shooting and you will become a better shooter.”

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Part-time Writer, Full-time Mother

Part-time writer, full-time mother from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Riley Stroman

Tasneem Grace Tewogbola left her career to raise her kids in what she sees is the right way. She is a part-time writer and a full-time mother.

She is a former reporter. She is a dedicated runner. And she is the devoted mother of three daughters.

“I am proud that I am in the process of trying to balance all of these different selves,” she said.

As a reporter, she worked for the Tennessean, a newspaper in Nashville, Tenn. There she met her husband and they had their first child, Yemurai, in 2003.

She loved being a reporter, she said, but didn’t want to follow crime and violence. She hated hearing sirens and hoped she wouldn’t be called to the scenes of death and destruction.

“For me, the joy of writing came in good, creative, compelling writing, not in covering who got shot,” Tewogbola said.

After having her first child, Tewogbola moved back to Syracuse where she got a job reporting for The Post-Standard.

She knew she wasn’t going to be an award-winning journalist with a nanny at home, she said. She wouldn’t let her job get in the way of her family.

“I did at some point realize that I wasn’t going to be the kind of reporter that would happily work 10- to 12-hour days,” Tewogbola said.

She finds fun activities to do with her kids, including taking them to swimming lessons and on daily trips to the library.

Tewogbola was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to Syracuse with her family. Here she found her passion for writing. She attended local schools, and during her senior year in high school she realized she wanted to pursue a career in journalism.

After high school she graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and began her reporting career.

She also worked with the Southside Community Coalition to help the neighborhood return to some of its original grandeur and show that it is actually a nice place to live.

Another of her passions is connected to her culture. She is interested in African dancing and was able to cover a dance story in Guinea, West Africa.

Though she’s taking a break from reporting to raise her family, she strongly argues that print journalism has a future. She acknowledges the growth of Internet news. But she insists many people will always like the feel of paper and the ritual of starting off the day reading the newspaper.

She expresses faith in the profession she still pursues part-time.

“I feel like it’s a growing pain, what the economy is doing, what advertisers are doing. I think newspapers will evolve, and survive,” said Tewogbola, “and it will be just another part of a story to tell.”

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Park's Passions: Photojournalism, Video & Teaching

Learning about Professor Sung Park from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Vivian Gunn

Growing up, Sung Park just wanted to take art photos. But when he came to Syracuse University, he changed his major to photojournalism.

Park decided to become a photojournalist because he found more chances to meet people in the community. He was shy when he was younger, and he believed photojournalism would help him overcome his fear.

“I thought it would help me break out of my shell of shyness,” he said.

Park is working on a project called “bok-sa-jin.” This project shows the Korean tradition of a final portrait to remember those who’ve died.

Park considers Austin, Texas, his home but for the past few years, he has lived in Syracuse working on his master’s degree Syracuse University and he has a contract to teach at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“Newhouse offers a lot of really fine education in photojournalism, up-to-date media and debt,” he said.

When Park was 5, he took his first photo. Park was trying to use a camera but lost his balance and in the middle of stumbling, he took a photo of grass. In 4th or 5th grade, Park bought his first camera at a garage sale for $1.50 and used his allowance to buy film. This is when Park fell in love with photography. He started taking pictures of his friends and family. He also began using his creativity in his photographs.

“I had an early childhood fascination with the process of photography,” he said

His pictures are just a story or an idea, Park said, and the message varies so he doesn’t have a specific message for his photos.

While attending Syracuse University, Park discovered the importance of photography and photojournalism.

“When I got to Syracuse University, I really learned what photography can do for me and society and learned how to overcome that shyness and it led to a career in journalism,” he said.

Park worked for USA Today in Virginia covering Capitol Hill and later for 14 years in Austin as a photojournalist for the American Statesman.

In Austin, he recalled, “I got to know the community one person at a time.”

He describes photography as a way to connect with peopl“It’s a real important part of the society and its relevant to neighbors and people around the world,” he said.

Park has also had the chance to work with famous people. He has worked with Willie Nelson, Selena, Lyle Lovette, Dick Clark, Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson family. He also photographed five presidents: Carter, Ford, Clinton and both Bushes.


Park’ s favorite photographer is Sabastio Salagato.

“All his photos are all around the whole world, black and white and powerful,” he said.

Five years ago, Park expanded to multimedia and video. He was applying for a job that demanded he shoot video. Now, video has opened more opportunities for him, he said.

Park teaches graduate and undergraduate students, teaches at J- Camp and gets paid for shooting video. He never studied video, he taught himself and he learned from his peers in Austin, Texas.

He describes his earlier work as preparing him for a career in teaching. “My number one priority is to teach here at Newhouse,” he said.

For future students who want to study photojournalism, Park advises to keep an open mind on what they want to study at Syracuse University. They should be a students of the world, understand what’s happening in the world and stay up on current events.

“Every photo is history, when documented, it’s already happened,” he said

Sung Park encourages students who wants to major in photojournalism, photography or video to attend Syracuse University. It has worked for him, he said.

“It’s been an incredible career,” he said.

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A Little Bit of Funk and Waffles

Waffles, Funk and Adam Gold from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Caitlin Quigley

Adam Gold wants to take over the world of waffles.

Gold is the hip co-founder of Funk ‘n Waffles, 727 South Crouse Ave. in the Syracuse University area. The café opened in January 2007 and continues to attract customers from The Hill.

“I want to make this a place for people to chill and enjoy themselves while still eating great food,” Gold says.

Funk ‘n Waffles has gained popularity throughout the city because it accepts all ages. The café doesn’t serve alcohol. “We offer an alternative place to hang out and we’re unique,” Gold says.

The café serves a variety of waffles from the classic Belgian to Fried Chicken ‘n Waffles. Other waffle specialties include the Monte Cristo, a Spinach, Feta, and Salmon and Pulled Pork.

The owners thought it would be good to sell desserts at the café, too. They offer the Brussels, Brownie Waffle Sundae and Jersey Shore, among others. The Brussels is served with a Belgian waffle and powdered sugar. The Jersey Shore is a waffle ice cream sandwich.

“I like serving dessert to people and seeing their face light up with the brownie waffle,” Gold says.

Variety is important at Funk ‘n Waffles.

“We did research on all the different types of waffles so people wouldn’t have to eat the same waffle twice,” Gold says.

They don’t stop at waffles. They also sell a variety of drinks ranging from espresso to hot chocolate. They offer hot lattes, cappuccinos and smoothies.

The prices are friendly to college students. Everything on the menu costs less than $10.

Funk ‘n Waffles sells merchandise with its logo. T-shirts are available, and during band shows it sells merchandise promoting the music.

Customers hear the music playing as they walk in. Records play on a turntable giving Funk ‘n Waffles a vibe some cafés don’t have.

The café appeals to crowds by offering musical acts about five times a week. The stage is helpful for bands looking to showcase their talent.

Most bands are local and their shows are heavily promoted by Gold and his employees. The music varies from reggae to rock to folk.

“My favorite part of the job would have to be putting on the concerts,” Gold says. “I love seeing a group full of people dancing. It really makes me feel good.”

Gold and his college friend, Kyle Corea, were juniors when they came up with the idea. They threw college parties and, Gold recalls, “loved making waffles.” They figured they would try their luck in the business.

They entered an entrepreneurial contest during their senior year. They submitted their idea of Funk ‘n Waffles and made it to the semifinals. Their recognition and small award gave them their first opportunity to begin.

“It was a new experience and when we saw people’s response we knew it was something we should pursue,” he says.

They decided they would open their own business combining music and waffles. Their “odd” idea, as Gold describes it, would soon turn successful.

Funk ‘n Waffles draws customers and music goers every night. Gold and Corea would like to continue their business and expand.

“We are looking to franchise, but it does take a lot of money and effort so we are just trying to survive for now,” Gold says.

They say they will make it through the survival period.

“People really like our shop,” Gold says. “It’s a creative atmosphere.”

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Reporting Around the World

Reporting around the world from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Molly Naef

A love of journalism is hard-wired in Maureen Sieh’s DNA.

“My passion for journalism will never go away,” Sieh says.

Maureen Sieh is the urban affairs editor at The Post-Standard. She is a native of Liberia, in West Africa. She came to America fleeing her country’s civil war in 1990. In Liberia, she grew up in a newspaper family and covered the war for her uncles’ paper.

Sieh describes herself as very opinionated about social issues and uses her journalism skills to help bring change. “I hope to continue to be a voice for communities who can’t speak up for themselves,” Sieh says.

When she came to the U.S., she earned a scholarship to study journalism at Indiana University. She worked at several newspapers before settling in Syracuse at The Post-Standard.

As the paper’s urban affairs editor, she blogs, reports and edits. “I have my hand in a little bit of everything that has to do with journalism,” Sieh said. She describes the job as “perfect.” As Sieh says, “This job is so cool.”

“I write about urban and ethnic communities¬ – anything that you can think about that’s happening in urban America,” she says.

At The Post-Standard, Sieh has followed the Lost Boys of Sudan since they came to America in 2001. The Lost Boys are a group of refugees from Sudan who were separated from their families whey they were 5 and 6 years old.

She also paid her own way to China to cover Lopez Lomong, a Lost Boy, who competed in the 2009 Olympics.

“I’m so proud of the Lost Boys of Sudan,” Sieh says.

Although Sieh said she loves her job, some stories are more difficult to write than others. For example: the Imani Jennings child abuse case. Imani was an infant that was beaten to death by her mother’s 15-year-old boyfriend.

“The Imani Jennings case is the hardest story I’ve ever covered. It is the result of a broken system and a broken community. The cycle needs to stop,” Sieh said.

Sieh recognizes both the good and the bad things in the community.

“I believe in celebrating the community. You can’t always focus on the problems,” Sieh says. For example, she covered the Juneteenth festival, a festival acknowledging the struggles African Americans went through to win freedom and other community events.

Sieh got into journalism when she was a child growing up in Liberia.

“I used to sell newspapers on the street corners of Liberia,” she recalls.

Her uncles ran newspapers that criticized the government during the Liberian civil war. The paper was banned and burned several times.

“One of the burnings was for a story I wrote about a woman’s husband who was arrested and killed,” recalls Sieh.

People urged her to stop writing about controversial issues, but Sieh would not be silenced. She was adamant about covering the war and insisted on throwing herself in the line of fire to get a good story on her native Liberia’s civil war.

When she finally left, she caught one of the last flights out before the airports shut. Sieh didn’t want to leave Liberia: “I kept staying for extra months.”

For the future, Sieh has big plans.

“My goal is to join the U.S. Peace Corps. I’ve always wanted to do international relief work,” Sieh says.

“I have mixed feelings about leaving journalism at this time,” she says. “But I hope to bring the same passion to whatever my new adventure is going to be.”

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Max Patino: A Life Dedicated to Newhouse

A Life dedicated to Newhouse from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Katya Waters

He’ll never forget the brilliant colors, the beauty and the grace of that day.

For Patino, the day he got married in the main lobby of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is one he’ll always remember. Looking out from his office, adjacent to the lobby, brings back memories of dazzling lights, beautiful flowers and his connection with the school.

Patino’s love for SU drove him to marry on campus. Patino asked then-Dean David Rubin if he could get married in the lobby and the dean approved, not even charging him for using the facility.

Patino was married on July 4, 2004.

He has been Newhouse’s director of admissions and diversity for nearly a decade now, sharing strong feelings for Newhouse with visitors. He gives wall-to-wall tours of Newhouse, citing history from memory along the way. He loves his job and loves to share his experiences, just like those he experienced on his first tour of SU, he says.

“I’ve got to meet great people here, and students who are doing great things,” he says.

Patino listens to prospective students and their parents, answers their questions and encourages them to come to Newhouse.

Patino graduated from Newhouse in 1997. While in college, Patino worked with the Latin music industry and got to meet many artists of the time.

“While I was a student here, I always had a passion for the school, but also for the school to move forward,” he said.

While working in the Latin music Industry, Patino met actor Robert DeNiro and musician Marc Anthony.

“It was a great experience and a fantastic chance that I got,” he said.

A few years after graduation, he was offered a job to address the issues of diversity at Newhouse. He felt so passionate about the school, he says, that he didn’t hesitate to accept the job. He enjoyed that his work involved helping those of different ethnic backgrounds, races and religion.

“Diversity to me is helping to create a freshman class that’s unique. Yes, people from different ethnicities, different social economic backgrounds, religions, sexes and orientations and mixing them all together where they can learn from each other. I think that encompasses true diversity,” he says. “I’ve been doing it ever since.”

He would like to see high school students turn into media leaders.

“And that’s where it’s at,” he says.

If he’s not giving tours or talking to families, he’s almost always at his desk. He stays busy, but loves the feeling of helping someone or doing something that will help someone.

Patino says his future will always involve teaching and learning about Newhouse.

“All in all, at the end of the day, it’s really about my students and teaching them so they can become media leaders,” he says, “and I think that is what’s important at heart.”

Bea Gonzalez: Views on the Community and Education

Dean Perceptions from Newhouse School J-Camp on Vimeo.

By Tina Thach

“Don’t let anybody limit you and what you can accomplish.”

That is Bea Gonzalez’s life philosophy. And she is living proof that it works.

Gonzalez is the dean of University College. She is the executive director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program and the S.U. Continuing Education program. She’s president of the Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corp., a local foundation that supports civic projects.

Oh, and she’s also the president of the Syracuse Common Council, Syracuse’s legislative body.

“I’m inspired to provide service to my community,” said Gonzalez, “because I learned that from my parents.”

Her parents came to the United States during the 1950’s as migrant workers. She became part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” of anti-poverty programs in the 1960’s. She describes herself as a “Head Start kid.” Head Start was created in 1965 to help low-income children get ready for kindergarten. As a child, she was also part of the Upward Bound program, which helps low-income students perform better in school.

She used the opportunities – such as Upward Bound and Head Start – to further her education.

Gonzalez graduated from SUNY Binghamton, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also has a master's in public administration from S.U.’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

“Because I was awarded the benefits of all of those programs and opportunities that came with that access,” Gonzalez explained, “I feel that the least that I could do is pay back by the service that I provide.”

In politics, Gonzalez’s public service includes being a founding member of the Onondaga Latino Caucus, created in 2001. It is an organization that advocates on behalf of the Latino community in politics. She was also a member of New York’s Electoral College for the 2004 presidential election.

In 2008, she considered running for mayor of Syracuse. But she dropped out to take care of her sick mother. Also, says Gonzalez, she was uncomfortable with so much fundraising.

As Gonzalez said, “Politics is a dirty business.”

She is a founding member of the Association of Neighbors Concerned for Latino Involvement. The group was founded to encourage the Latino community to engage in politics.

Gonzalez is also a member of the Onondaga Citizens League, which promotes public understanding and discussion of community concerns.

She also pays her dues of public service by lecturing about community subjects like city education. She helps students by giving them guidance on how to register for classes at University College. Gonzalez was also the Commissioner of Education for the Syracuse City School District from 1991 to 1993.

Gonzalez is keen on the relevance of subjects taught in school. If students don’t understand the relevance, Gonzalez said, why would they want to learn about it?

“Education,” she said, “is the great equalizer in society.”

Education allows people to transcend and eliminate limitations, Gonzalez said. The students at University College are usually part-time students or students who are pursuing a non-degree study, she said. That sparks her enthusiasm for education and no limitations.

“Anyone that’s turned on by learning,” Gonzalez said with relish, “I think that’s the best.”

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Caitlin Quigley: Master of the mind

By Arielle Kaigler-Hall

Caitlin Rose Quigley uses her mind a lot.

At Fowler High School, Quigley competes in Masterminds, pop culture trivia club. She belongs to the school’s engineering group. She also has a 95 grade-point average, which earned her a spot in the National Honors Society.

“I studied from January to June trying to improve my scores,” Quigley said. She received a score of 1850 out of 2400 on her SAT. Quigley would like to attend Syracuse University or Northeastern University in Boston. She would like to become a health scientist or study in the field of engineering.

In the fall, Quigley will be a senior at Fowler High School. During her senior year, she plans to be on the bowling team and play tennis.

Quigley is the senior editor for her school newspaper, “The Falcon Flyer.” She describes her work with the paper as “a way to express how I really feel.” For example, Quigley wrote an article about hierarchy in her school and how the social class in the school is divided.

The article was “controversial,” Quigley said. “People thought I was attacking Fowler.”

Quigley was born on March 3,1992, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, New York. She is the middle child between two sisters, and lives with her mother and stepfather.

During her free time, Quigley loves to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gossip Girls.”

“‘Gossip Girls’ is my release therapy,” she said. “Maybe it makes me think I’m a good person.”

Quigley also loves to follow Perez Hilton’s blog. “He is my idol, and he is very honest and tells the truth,” she said. “And I like that fact that he made a fortunate on something that he loves.”

But most of the time she is putting her mind to work.

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Molly Naef: The Interesting Hobbyist

By Riley Stroman

Molly Naef loves to bake. She would rather whip up a chocolate mint soufflé than take a trip to the mall. She can bake anything from cookies to cakes.

Apart from baking, she also likes gardening. Naef grows herbs and some vegetables and can bake a quiche using some of her veggies.

“Gardening helps me clear my head,” Naef says.

Naef is currently a junior at Nottingham High School. She wants to pursue a career in journalism. “I want to be able to tell people about the issues that I think are important.”

Naef enjoys watching action movies with her mom and dad. She has a 28-year old stepsister who is hoping for a baby. Naef is excited about the thought of being an aunt. Adding another family member to the movie nights and baking sessions won’t hurt.

Her mother showed her how to belly dance when she was 11. She has been dancing since.

Her passion for herbs and vegetables fuels her drive to expose environmental corruption. She hopes to use her love for writing to muckrake corporations who are trying to hide global problems.

“I believe that if people know what is happening to the planet," Naef said, "they can help the situation, not make it worse."

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Rylah Orr: A Teen Novelist

By Vivian Gunn

Rylah Orr wrote her first novel at the age of 13.

The novel, Watertopian Heroes, was about an emperor who put a curse on a man. Ever since the emperor cursed the man, he has attacked the emperor and the emperor’s daughter to try to break the curse.

“Me and my friends decided to act out characters and when we were finished, I decided to write it in a novel,” Orr said.

Orr never finished.

“I just got bored with it” she said.

Since then, she has written three unfinished novels: Stormdust, Dragon Scale and her current one, With the Bears.

“I’m trying to finish my current novel,” she said. Orr hopes that when she finishes her novels, they can get published.

Other than her novels, Orr sketches Japanese anime. She gets her inspiration from Death Note, Wolf’s Rain, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Usually, Orr doesn’t sketch the amines from her favorite shows or movies. She sketches them from her imagination and creativity.

Orr’s passion for writing novels and Japanese anime made her determined to major in English and computer animation at Syracuse University.

Orr says she will never give up her passion on writing novels and Japanese animation.

“Well, I think I want to write about Japanese animation novels to show people what I think about them and see how I create them,” she said.

Orr also enjoys watching bloody movies.

Rylah has seven siblings: four sisters, Sarah, Dannah, Deborah, Bethany and three brothers, Michael, Josh and Joel.

Her favorite holiday is Christmas. Since all her siblings don’t live together, she loves having the family come together and getting sick from eating too much candy.

Orr’s favorite food is panda paws ice cream because of the loaded peanut butter.

Orr does regret one of her personality traits. She regrets being shy because she feels she could’ve done many things in her life and wasn’t brave enough.

When Rylah got invited to attend the church’s pumpkin picking, she was too scared to attend and her brother Joel went instead. When Joel came back from pumpkin picking, he told Rylah how much fun he had and she was mad at herself for not going.

Rylah plans to attend college, but has yet to decide if SU is best for her. No matter, she hopes going to a university will help her overcome one trait.

“Hopefully my shyness would go away,” she said.

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Vivian Gunn: The Princess Who Became an Actress

By Rylah Orr

Vivian Gunn’s career choice changed from a princess, to a dentist, to an archeologist, to a choreographer and finally came to a stop at an actress.

Gunn dreams of going to Hollywood. Her ultimate fantasy? Acting in action, romance and comedy movies with Terrence Howard.

When she was younger, Gunn’s mother bought her a tea set, pink slippers and a tiara allowing her to play pretend. After parading around the house in pink, the princess phase came to a halt. She became fascinated with teeth.

“I had to go to the dentist because I had a toothache,” Gunn said.

Dr. Fred Gilbeax, Gunn’s role model, pushed the idea of being a dentist into Gunn’s mind. He showed Gunn his office, the tools he used and how he lived. Gunn entered the world of dentistry. Although some may not enjoy that world, Gunn did. This dream died when Gunn found her new addiction to old artifacts.

Old pieces of lost history had an unknown pull on Gunn. The History channel opened the portal to the realm of an archeologist. Posters in her history class in sixth grade portrayed these mysterious artifacts that fascinated her. A dancer later destroyed the realm of archeologists.

Gunn was that dancer. At the age of 7, she stole the stage of the Children’s Theater, Onondaga Dance Institute, Nottingham High School and Syracuse Stage. She danced into three worlds in only seven years. Like the previous interests, this one was overtaken by drama.

High School drama class gave her roles in Romeo and Juliet, Jesus Christ Superstar, Annie and Nunsense. Juliet’s nurse was transformed into Mother Superior. Gunn loved the power of transforming into someone who wasn’t herself.

The power of the actress stopped Gunn’s adventure through different worlds. She had finally found where she belonged. “I like the fact that I can be different characters,” Gunn said.

“Getting introduced to different things,” said Gunn, now 17, revealed why she traveled so much from dream to dream. Gunn had finally realized that life is a continuous journey.

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Tina Thach: In the Mind of a Serial Killer

By Tonielle Moore

Tina Thach wants to think like a serial killer.

That’s why she wants to study forensics psychology in college. That’s why she watches her favorite TV show, “CSI.” That’s how she wants to solve crimes. She wants to find peace and justice for victims.

“There is always an answer,” Thach said.

She hopes to understand why serial killers commit their crimes. Then, perhaps one day she will be able to prevent them from killing.

Thach, 17, will be a senior at Fowler High School. She is also a one the first students to attend J- camp, a program to teach journalism to 10 Syracuse city high school students.

Both of her parents are different nationalities. Her mother is Indian. Her father is Vietnamese. She has two brothers and two sisters, and she is the youngest of the siblings. One brother works in a nail salon. Her other brother is a fisherman.

She also likes to draw Japanese anime.

To pursue her dream of stopping serial killers, Thach wants to become a forensic psychologist. She would like to attend John Jay College in New York City to get a doctorate.

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Katya Waters: Two-sided Personality

By Jamal Reed

Katya Waters has two competing parts of her personality.

On one hand she is focused and hard working. On the other she is open-minded and likes to have fun.

“I’m not afraid to act stupid, because that’s how I learn,” Waters said. “I’m confident, but I’m still a true blonde at heart.”

By “true blonde at heart,” Waters means she “can be myself and not be embarrassed.”

Waters is a 15-year-old sophomore at Nottingham High School. She loves hanging out with friends and playing sports. She’s the coxswain of the Bulldogs crew team and hopes to compete in college rowing.

Waters wants to spend her future at Rochester Institute of Technology and major in computer science. She is learning as much technology as she can in high school so that when she gets to college she will have an edge over other students.

Finishing high school is the first step to making it to the Promised Land for Waters.

Waters has a side that can sweep you off your feet. She enjoys dancing, attending house parties, shopping and chilling with her friends. Her clothes and swagger make a fashion statement about the life she sketches.

“I don’t stress myself out when I try to work hard,” Waters says. “I just laugh and take a break.”

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Arielle Kaigler-Hall: The Cover Girl

By Caitlin Quigley

Arielle Kaigler-Hall wants to be the cover girl.

“Cover girls represent beauty, strength and personality,” Kaigler-Hall says. “I want to master all of those things.”

Kaigler-Hall, 17, has always been the friendly, outgoing type. She loves meeting new people and trying different things.

She attends Corcoran High School in Syracuse, N.Y. She will be a senior in the fall of 2009.

“I really enjoy going to a public school because it lets me out of my shell and allows me to participate in more activities,” Kaigler-Hall says.

Kaigler-Hall used to attend Bishop Ludden, a private religious school. She wanted to leave that school after three years because, “I needed to expand my horizons and try something new,” she says.

While at Corcoran she has become even more involved. She participates in varsity tennis, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), Big Brother Big Sister and International Baccalaureate classes. She is the vice president of her DECA chapter and she has written many times in Post Standard’s Voices, a page for teen writers.

“I always wanted to write for the newspaper and with Voices I could,” Kaigler-Hall says. “It was my time to shine.”

She was recently named Big Sister of The Year and this is something that she is proud of because, “it gave me someone else to care about.”

Kaigler-Hall’s reason for being so helpful and outgoing is her childhood. She grew up in Syracuse, N.Y. with her family. She said she believes her mom is the reason for her success.

“My mom has always gone out of her way to accommodate, encourage, and love me,” she says.

Kaigler-Hall isn’t sure what she hopes to do when she enters college in Fall 2010, but she knows she wants to do her best.

“I want to be a well-rounded person, but writing and journalism will definitely be my top choices,” she says.

Writing has always been her way to leave the world and, as she says, “let out her real feelings.”

“To me, a cover girl isn’t just a title, it’s an honor. But being a real cover girl would be an amazing dream,” Kaigler-Hall says. “The free makeup would be nice, too.”

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Riley Stroman: The Kind-hearted Athlete

By Molly Naef

Riley Stroman enjoys the rough challenge of sports, but admits to having a tender heart.

“The two most important things to me are my family and my sports,” Stroman said.

A rising senior at Corcoran High School, Stroman is a starting basketball and football player. He describes his favorite sports, basketball and football, as “rough, fun, and exhilarating.”

Stroman has traveled to places with his basketball team, such as Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.

Stroman’s tender heart stands out as he spends time with his family. He enjoys playing basketball with his nine brothers and sisters. Eating with his family every Sunday is a tradition. Stroman and his father bond when fishing together. Video games such as Madden and NBA games are another Stroman family activity.

But the Stroman kids weren’t always so close.

Stroman opens up: “I’m afraid of the dark.”

Stroman’s fear of the dark began when he was 10 years old and his siblings locked him in the dark basement. It was “scary and cold,” he said.

But his parents ran to free him, as always.

The hectic, but loving environment he was raised in shaped his goals and priorities to reflect his love for his family.

“My future looks pretty good,” Stroman says.

In the future, he hopes to go to college in Florida to play basketball and be close to his older brother who lives there. In the hope that his family will benefit from his salary, Stroman hopes to become a successful businessman.

Stroman’s idea of bliss is “being problem-free.” He describes himself simply: “I’m a happy person.”

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Tonielle Moore: Child Advocate

By Tina Thach

Tonielle Moore’s mission is becoming a voice for children.

“It’s an indescribable feeling,” Moore said. She describes the feeling of helping children as “a mixture of happiness and excitement.”

Moore is a 17-year-old student at Corcoran High School. She is passionate about volunteer work and child psychology. During the summer, she volunteers at Cannon Street Community Center.

Moore works with children of both genders and all ages at the center. Moore is enthusiastic about a program that awards a free computer to its kids after they finish computer-training courses like Excel.

Moore’s interest in working with children inspired her to explore child psychology. She decided that child psychology would become her major in college, she said. The major will allow Moore to see the world from a child’s perspective.

Working with children, Moore said, makes her happy. She benefits from the experiences because the kids appreciate her efforts to help them. Moore then knows that a career in helping children is her dream.

“If I could see through a child’s eyes,” Moore said, “I could help them find their own happiness.

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Jamal Reed; Forensic Journalist, Master of Technology?

By Katya Waters

College is big, and Jamal Reed is torn. Should he major in forensics? Maybe. Technology? Possibly. Journalism? Interesting.

“I like journalism,” he said, “because of the writing and experiences you can get from it.”

Reed has plans ready for his big college decision by taking studying seriously in high school. “I find my strong and weak points of focus, which helps me solve my gaps in learning.”

He says he realizes the whole reason for moving to Central New York to live with his sister was to focus on school and become successful. “Moving from NYC to Central New York was me changing my past to a future,” he said.

Will Reed be ready for the stress of college? His life in New York City was good preparation for what lies ahead.

“I feel like college is my key to unlock my success,” he says.

His mother back in New York City supports his goals and told him she believes the move was the best choice for him. If he graduates from high school, he can return to New York City to live with his mother and his two brothers and sisters.

Reed says he has some down time and loves to spend it at the mall at his favorite store, H&M. He also loves to write poetry, which he uses to stay fresh with writing ideas for journalism. He keeps himself in shape for football and basketball seasons which he competes in at Fowler High School. In the spring he runs track.

This summer, Reed will work in a job on the SU campus.

“Football and basketball are my motivation to succeed in life,” he says.

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