Talk:Young D.C.

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[edit] Replace with facts (if any exist)

Most of below is opinion. I suppose Trygstad's leaving is a fact, but it's importance needs to be asserted more clearly.

Because four of YDC teens were research and editorial assistants for this Freedom Forum project, it was a high point for the program and the newspaper. A nadir followed. Trygstad accepted an offer to teach overseas. A dynamic successor was hard to find.

Too vague. Replace this with facts. What does it mean to "helped ... through this first bout with hard times". What "economic pressures"? What is "retrenching"?

Economic pressures forced three years of retrenching. Stalwart supporters (The Freedom Forum, the Bureau of National Affairs, National Press Club and the Children’s Charities Foundation) helped YDC through this first bout with hard times.

If it's widely reported, give a cite, or better yet, give a cite for the actual reason funding was reduced without speculating this was the cause of a general reduction in funding.

As widely reported, the aftermath of September 11, 2001, included reduced funding for many nonprofit organizations. The new millennium delivered a new recession, but YDC management knew how to cope. Budgets were balanced. Teen participation was stable.

The paragraph after the bullets looks like promotional / fundraising language. Has anyone not connected with the newspaper made these points, or made the connection between Young DC and the cited study? Or was Young DC mentioned in the cited study? If yes to either, maybe this can be rewritten and salvaged. If no, then this sure looks like original research or opinion, not facts.

The next big study came in 2005. The Future of the First Amendment: What America’s High School Students Think about Their Freedoms, a report by the University of Connecticut’s Public Policy and the Center for Survey Research & Analysis funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was a two-year, $1 million study that delivered sobering news:

  • Forty percent of high schools that do not have student newspapers eliminated them within the past five years;
  • Nearly three-quarters of all students either don’t know how they feel about the First Amendment, or take it for granted.
This study is cited because Young D.C. has been vigilant as Captive Voices charged. It never abandoned the sound practices described in Death by Cheeseburger. Young D.C. is connected to an optimistic finding in The Future of the First Amendment: youth who care about journalism find a way to practice it. Across the board — urban, suburban, rural — seven percent of teens found ways to gain experience in journalism when their schools had meager or no opportunities for learning about the free press through hands-on education. In the metropolitan D.C. area few public high schools have a publishing schedule as rigorous as the YDC schedule. Statistically, in the metropolitan area, more than 10,000 teens should be taking advantage of journalism education. Much fewer are doing so.

The first two sentences are opinion. Maybe the third sentence could be retained as fact.

Young D.C. has a history of resilience and excellence. In 2006, it experienced an exemplary transition in leadership. Long-time executive director Kathleen Reilly Mannix moved onto the board of directors and Puja Telikicherla, an alumna of the program, took over the management of the Young D.C.

Just handle this with a sentence in the text. We don't need bullets to list two items.

[edit] Executive Directors (past and present)

  • Puja Telikicherla (current)
  • Kathleen Reilly Mannix

- Aagtbdfoua 01:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notability

This article also needs to assert why the subject is notable, or appropriate for inclusion in this encyclopedia. On a related note, reliable sources should be used to cite facts in the article. Right now, there are no reliable sources as references, and the only sources cited are self-published. See WP:A#Using questionable or self-published sources for guidelines. - Aagtbdfoua 02:10, 17 June 2007 (UTC)