Charlotte Arzuian and Youth Journalism Coalition students present on journalism and Portrait

Thank you so much.

Sarah Vasquez-Leighton, Kiara Capurso, CJ Sanchez, and Sophie Mode.

Chair Dinowitz, would you be open to our entire student panel coming up?

How many are there?

It's six students, then me and Sophie.

That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Pull up another chair.

Thank you.

Is it Ezin Nwanko?

Is that the panel?

Ezin Nwanko, Charlotte.

Arzuian?

Kamani Mitchell, Julius Marinov.

You may begin.

Please, in your test, state your name for the record and begin.

Hello.

Sharla Arzuian.

Hello.

I'm Sharla Arzuian, a junior at Bard High School, Early College Manhattan.

Thank you all for the opportunity to speak today.

This summer, I interned for the Youth Journalism Coalition, investigating Portrait of a Graduate.

Sitting next to me are five New York City public school students and two YJC representatives from across the city.

Today we are going to show you why journalism education is a key to building the skills and scholarly habits central to Portrait of a Graduate.

I go to a school that doesn't teach to the regents.

We do take the required number of regents exams, but our learning is focused elsewhere.

We take accredited college classes in which we read texts, share our interpretations, and probe those of our classmates.

Those conversations are meaningful because they help me develop my voice and my thinking and teach me how to explore open-ended questions where there is not one correct answer.

In other words, I resonate with the potential of Portrait of a Graduate because I've benefited from the style of learning in my classes.

When I joined my student newspaper, The Bardvark, I realized student journalism is a natural extension to this learning.

Like seminars, reporting taught me to approach an issue from multiple angles and sparked a curiosity about the history of my community that got us to where we are.

When the phone policy at my school first came out, I had questions about how the policy would be implemented.

I was able to ask these questions.

While reporting and writing on the story.

I also researched state law and interviewed administrators, giving me the tools to clarify the policy for the student body and to approach the issue from multiple angles.

Being a journalist not only enabled me to ask these questions, but helped me build communication and critical thinking skills, in this case serving as an important act of civic responsibility.

Portrait of a Graduate is a commitment to prepare graduates to think critically and participate in their community.

This is a noble commitment I stand for, and I think involving as many high school students in journalism as possible would be a highly effective way for the city to do this.

With the launch of Journalism for All in 30 schools and a summer internship pipeline built through the Summer Youth Employment Program, the infrastructure already exists to make equitable youth journalism a reality and portrait of a graduate.

YJC is ready to work with both the DOE and City Council to help integrate this framework citywide.

Before every interview, I'm so little nervous, but excited at the opportunity to learn more.

I know that now more than ever, we need journalists.

Students who have a duty to report on the truth, craft it as a team, and share it with others.

I'm lucky that I'm out of school with a great newspaper, for which I now serve as opinions editor.

But everyone deserves this opportunity.

Please help give students in all 500 high schools the resources to engage in an important pillar of our democracy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Charlotte.

You may begin.

Apologies, is this working?

All right.