My experience at the School of Authentic Journalism

The struggle is still ours

By Valeria Jerez
School of Authentic Journalism, Class of 2015

February 25, 2016

There are things that you know from the beginning are meant for you. I remember reading the invitation to become part of the 2015 generation of auténticos and I still remember how deeply identified I felt with the School of Authentic Journalism as I reviewed its program.

“Training in social movements”, “Effective spread of information through different media”... Perfect!

Somehow, for those of us who are in the world of wanting to communicate, express, and above all transform thoughts, it can be hard to find the kinds of people and spaces we need to help us initiate our own projects. In a society where we constantly see how easily the media is able to manipulate information, and see how public opinion is so often biased by such manipulation, it is a challenge to form our own opinions and hard to know how to effectively use the media we have available to us. The School of Authentic Journalism was a place where I could find all that; in which I realized that in other countries of the world, and not only in mine, there are people who have ideas like mine. And that the ideas I had were not as crazy as I thought.

I lived together with slightly fewer than 50 people during four days and realized that we’re not alone. That beyond our cultural and geographical differences, the struggles each of us set out to fight have something in common: to help those who have neither the voice nor the means to be noticed, to be heard. To us, the School of Authentic Journalism is union. It is hope. It is a path. It is a door and a bridge to creating more just and egalitarian realities. It is authenticity.

There’s really no reason I can think of why you shouldn’t help us to make the 2016 School happen. Please help us with any gift, large or small.

I urge those who are reading this to please help us extend this opportunity to another generation of scholars in 2016.

The phrase that stuck with me was Al Giordano’s: “We won’t change the world. We are already changing it with our work.”

The struggle is still ours.

Join the Kickstarter campaign or go to authenticjournalism.org to learn more about the school.

Lea Ud. el Artículo en Español

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