The Common Wealth, Common
Wisdom Project connects young people and depression era elders, allowing them
to share experiences of entrepreneurship in difficult times. The youth and elders
will share their stories through audio, video, photos and writing.
The project sponsored by
North Country Public Radio, is a community collaboration with the Youth Bureau,
Office for the Aging, local Historical Associations, and the Public Media Innovation
Fund Program at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Common
Wealth, Common Wisdom is indebted to St. Lawrence University for gereously allowing
the team to use their state-of-the-art media laboratory, the NCAT (Newell Center
for Arts Technology.)
Chelsea and I recently held two CWCW outreach events in Potsdam. The first, at the museum in town, saw a small crowd, but all had a great time listening to CWCW's stories whilst eating delicious pumpkin doughnuts and drinking New York apple cider. We also attended Potsdam High School's open house and met with a lot of young people interested in NCPR and CWCW.
Keep an eye out for our next CWCW event. Come and hear our stories for the first time or listen again!
Madelyn Ball listens to CWCW stories; photo by Hui Yang.
Benjamin Stone and Corina Simonelli show their enthusiasm for CWCW; photo by Hui Yang.
Next Wednesday, October 14th, Brenna and I will be heading over to the museum in Potsdam (next to the Potsdam library) to showcase our work from this summer. Four interns each worked with an elder who grew up during the Great Depression, getting tried and true advice on how to survive the recession. This event starts at 6:30 pm and is open and free to everyone; refreshments will be served. Two more outreach events this fall will follow this one.
Everybody is talking about the economy these days- it's a topic of instant distress for people of all ages across the US, but especially for teens. Something all of my friends are wondering is: how will I pay for college? It's not an easy question to answer. While college tuition is increasing, the job market is decreasing, as illustrated by this article in The New York Times, which notes that teen unemployment is at its highest point ever. The article says that over a quarter of teens looking for work were unsuccessful this summer. I can't say I'm surprised, knowing how hard it is to find work in the North Country. It's weird to think that teens, usually stereotyped as wanting to laze around and watch t.v. all day, are actually trying to get jobs, and aren't working through no fault of their own.
Jobs are getting harder and harder to get for people my age- it's a domino effect. College graduates, young and old, are having an impossible job of finding work that meets their qualifications, and they have to take the work usually reserved for people my age- restaurant jobs, fast food joints, working at gas stations, etc. And what's left for us? Nada, because what is left is grabbed by local colleges kids, and considering there are four colleges within a twenty minute radius of me, there are a whole lot of them to be hired. Moreover, a large portion of the jobs young people get in the North Country are acquired through knowing the owner or already having your best friend work there.
What does this mean for people my age?
It means we'll have an even more difficult a time paying for college. Universities are starting to turn people down because they just don't have the resources to provide students with sufficient financial aid. We need jobs in order to go into our first year without totally floundering. SATs, ACTs, and AP tests aren't cheap; AP tests are $86 each, and like a lot of people I know, I've got four or five to take in the spring. Colleges charge between fifty and seventy dollars to just apply. And we can't just rely on our parents to cover these costs, as they're having a hard enough time getting and keeping jobs.
Jobs are getting increasingly difficult to get after one graduates from college as well. And then what happens with that massive college debt? If a person can't get the high paying job they expected, because those jobs just aren't as readily available any more, that debt sits, grows, and becomes almost impossible to pay off.
Interviewing Ruth Garner this summer, I realized just how privileged my life is. During the Great Depression, kids were lucky if they had more than a few different outfits and usually just had one pair of shoes. A job for them was helping a neighbor garden or cleaning someone's house and earning ten cents. Though the work was sporadic and low-paying, purchases were few and far between. The majority of high school graduates didn't go to college and so didn't have to pay outrageous tuition. Furthermore, while my peers feel entitled to own the latest iPod and xbox, teens in the Great Depression didn't have those things to buy. And in our instant gratification society, it's not a matter of just wanting it anymore, owning those things has become the norm. But what happens when we can't afford them anymore?
Will the economy miraculously improve soon, and the job market open up? Will those "gotta have it" items get less expensive? Will we simply stop caring about owning absolutely everything? Or will we continue without jobs?
It's impossible to predict the future, but with so few jobs available, I think we can predict a rise of teens who look at their skill set and create their own work- a rise in entrepreneurship. When people are down and out of luck, creativity is at its best.
In addition to her feature piece about Ann and Roger Huntley, Jenn Sibert chose to profile local entrepreneur Maggie Wood, age 17. Jenn says: "Maggie's story and creative genius is unique and it was such a pleasure to interview her. At an early age she discovered her passion for crafting jewelry and clothes from recycled materials. She goes through great lengths to connect with her surrounding community despite living in a small town and taking online classes instead of attending the local high school." Listen as Maggie explains her sources of motivation, inspiration, and her life as a young entrepreneur.
They say that behind every hard working man is an even harder working woman. Behind Roger Huntley, who just retired after four decades as an auctioneer, is the tireless and indominable Ann Huntley. The Huntleys just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In this piece, produced by Jennifer Sibert for the Common Wealth Common Wisdom project, Roger and Ann take us back to the day they met, through a lifetime of collaboration on the farm and under the auction tent.
You can see photos of Ann and Roger Huntley and and hear the rest of the stories in this series at ncpr.org/cwcw.
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