(If you’d like to get involved in our own “Teenage Portrait”, please click on “AKALA STUDENTS” and go to “TEENAGE PORTRAIT”)
A few months ago I became intrigued with the PBS project, “American Portrait.”
I found myself endlessly clicking on people’s stories, curious to learn about so many others who are so different from my own circle of friends and family. I decided to get involved and submitted a “story” to answer one of the questions: I never expected….. A few weeks later I was contacted and asked if I would like to film short answers to four questions that could potentially be used in the TV documentary that PBS was preparing. I jumped at the opportunity, signed my release forms and waited for the airing of the series. Well, I didn’t make it to the TV, but my short films are on the PBS site for all to see. And now, they are here for you all to see too! The questions I was asked are timely, relevant, thought provoking, serious and somewhat sad. My answers? Well, not exactly uplifting, but we are not exactly in uplifting times (though hope does appear to be on the horizon). But the result of my answers was that I am even more committed to seeing our AKALA program spread throughout the country, bringing equity and opportunity to those who are most vulnerable, those who receive the least of what this supposed wonderful country has to offer.