MEET THE 2019 TEEN JOURNALISTS
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Amber Solorio
Age 16, 11th grade, Soledad High School
Amber Solorio, an incoming junior at Soledad High, is currently attending her first Young Voices Media Workshop. Her main reason for attending this camp is to improve her writing and journalistic ideas through rigorous learning and training. In the future she envisions herself at either UCLA or Columbia college. Unwavered by the challenges of this workshop, she sees the upcoming struggles as an opportunity to amplify the voices of her community and youth.
Angela Rodriguez
Age 15, 10th grade, Gonzales High School
Angela Rodriguez is a 15-year-old living in the small town of Gonzales, California and will attend Gonzales High School as a sophomore this coming year. She has many hobbies to pass the time with such as; writing fictional stories, reading books, playing instruments like the guitar and spending time with family. She loves to watch television such as anime and documentaries, and her favorite tv shows are Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Good Place. She loves to listen to music and her favorite band is Cage the Elephant and her favorite artist is Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Angela is passionate about helping and making the world better. She is not sure what she wants to do as a profession but she will look into journalism or some form of writing, or psychology. She aspires to go to Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara or UC Santa Cruz.
Betsy Navarro
Age 15, 10th grade, Everett Alvarez High School
Betsy Navarro is an incoming sophomore at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas. At age 15, she balances straight As, playing soccer, volunteering, various academic programs, and a social life all at once. It’s always been a passion of hers to give back and provide for the community that raised her. Ever since she was young, she’s had a need to right the wrongs in her community, nationwide and even globally. Her parents taught her the importance of “never forgetting where you came from, but also never losing sight of where you are going.” Betsy aspires to be a pediatrician and plans to study medicine at the University of California Irvine or San Diego State University. But her most important goal in life is to be happy. Betsy wants to experience life to the fullest through travel, spreading her contagious positivity and compassion around the world.
Danielle Javier
Age 17, 12th grade, Gonzales High School
A proud member of the Young Voices Media Project, Danielle Javier, will start her last year of high school. She’s a 17 year old at Gonzalez High School. After high school, she wants to go to San Diego State University and become a film editor. During Danielle’s sophomore year in high school, she figured out that she wanted a career that involved editing videos. Her passion for making films sparked when she was a little girl. During her spare time, Danielle likes to bake desserts and swim with her friends. Danielle’s heroes are her parents. She says, “They have sacrificed many things for me and my family and have pushed me to do new things.” Her parents support her and her decisions and want what is best for her. A goal she wants to accomplish as an adult is to move to Switzerland. She wants to live in a peaceful country and experience new things. Recently, she got an A in her Advanced Placement US history class.
Johanna Podio
Age 17, 12th grade, transferring from Millennium Charter School
Johanna Podio is a 17-year-old senior fro Salinas, California, currently enrolled in El Puente High School. Johanna joined the Young Voices Media Project with the intent to improve herself and her writing. Johanna has studied ballet since she was four years old dedicates most of her free time to practice. Johanna enjoys listening to jazz and dancing along with it, she also enjoys artists like Taylor Swift. Her greatest inspiration is her grandmother, who is an artist and works with the Monterey Art Gallery. Her grandmother has inspired her to study photography. Johanna says she would like to become a photographer some day in the future, as well as a writer. Johanna has expressed her passion for the environment and would like to write articles to educate people on the issues our world is facing in order to bring about action to solve them. “We should all be conscious of our planet and be cautious,” she said.
Jordan Montero
Age 15, 10th grade, Everett Alvarez High School
Jordan Montero is a lively 15-year-old sophomore in Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas and is ready to experience life to the fullest. Jordan is involved in many extracurricular activities such as basketball, volunteer, and dance; her basketball position is a shooting guard and she volunteers in churches and teaches kids basketball. She started doing dance three years ago. Jordan’s dance group is able to travel around the nation and won third place in a dance competition known as Worlds and it was her proudest moment in life. Jordan has five younger siblings, with three sisters and two brothers. Her heroes are her parents because of their sacrifice for her and her siblings and their contributions to her other activities. Jordan’s goal is to be happy because she struggled in life but she doesn’t want her experiences to affect the way she lives.
Juliana Hazel
Age 14, 10th grade, Gonzales High School
Juliana Hazel has already been introduced to journalism through her mother, a journalism teacher at Greenfield High School who taught her a little bit about it. Juliana is lives in Greenfield and is currently a sophomore. She might be transferring to Greenfield High or going to Gonzales High School. When she is older she wants to be in the art field and become a writer. Juliana taught herself how to crochet as one of her hobbies, and her other two hobbies are reading and writing. At the Voices of Monterey Bay Young Voices Media Project, Juliana wants to learn some journalism tricks and tips.
Nathaniel Smith
Age 17, 12th grade, King City High School
Nathaniel Smith is a New York native, a resident of Soledad and a senior at King City High School. Sit and talk with him and the conversation flows. At the tail end of his time at King City High, trailing into senior year, Nathaniel has found his passion in a creative writing class. He hopes to continue his education on the East Coast, preferably at New York University.
Noah Canchola
Age 17, 11th grade, Soledad High School
Noah Canchola, a student socialite at Soledad High, is attending his second Young Voices Media Workshop. He entertains the idea of journalism as “a window of opportunity to uplift individual’s and shed light on issues in need of attention.” As a connoisseur of the written word, Noah also finds himself indulging in writing poetry and fiction and surrounding himself in natural environments such as the beach. He is set on attending either UC Berkeley or UCLA, the most prestigious campuses in the UC system, but for now is busy navigating his way through a busy household of his nursing assistant mother, his ag salesman father, and an older brother and sister.
