Youth is served, sort of, in statewide chat

MARY LOCHNER

October 16, 2008 at 1:07PM AKST

Billed as a “revolutionary discussion that will directly impact the future of Alaska,” the Forum of Young Alaskans held Saturday, Oct. 11, appeared to fall somewhat short of that.

In its first year, the ambitious project to get youths ages 16 through 25 gathered at nine different locations around Alaska to engage in a live, video-conference-enabled discussion about the issues that matter to them most had its hits and misses.

It wasn’t for lack of youthful potential. Around 50 participants showed at the largest forum, in Anchorage, and rural sites reported handfuls of excited attendees.

But as the forum kicked off with a video feed of a speech by University of Alaska president Mark Hamilton, youths at the Anchorage site doodled, held politely quiet conversations among themselves, or struggled to pay attention while the soporific voice on the screen rolled off comments like “Tying dreams to processes will make them achievable.”

The video feed had a glitch and cut off in the middle of the next set of introductory remarks, by Cook Inlet Tribal Council president and CEO Gloria O’Neill, and that was the last of the video-conference distributed speeches by august personages.

The youths in the Anchorage room showed mild interest in the in-person speech made by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. In Dillingham, youths were reportedly most interested in those speeches that were delivered in-person by local community leaders, such as state house candidates Ron Bowers and incumbent Bryce Edgmon.

Apparently, there’s nothing like old-fashioned, in-the-same-room engagement.

News releases for the forum said it would “connect young people from varied geographical locations across the state in discussions using video conferencing.”

In anticipation of that statewide discussion, the three students who participated from the Dillingham site  — Sidney Nelson, Chanice Nelson and Tamrit Grewal — dressed appropriately for the occasion, in formal attire.

But as it turned out, the “video-conference” meant little more than webcam-style snapshots of what other forum participants were doing at other sites.

What all the participants were doing was, essentially, the homework they were directed to do. After technical difficulties cut short the video speeches, attendees were set to work on writing down the answers to questions such as, “What does it mean to be Alaskan?” and “How has Alaska changed in your lifetime?”

Adult facilitators circled the Anchorage room to ensure the youths were completing the assignments. After five minutes allotted to write down answers was up, the groups were asked to collect individuals’ answers and compile them.

Participants at rural sites like Dillingham, Bethel and Nome were given the same set of directives, but had fewer participants and tended to finish sooner, local rural facilitators said. As a bonus, that meant they had leftover time to engage in authentic discussion while waiting for members of the numerous small discussion groups in Anchorage to finish the assignments.

90-second video summaries
After hours of repeating the same process with several questions, groups from all nine sites got 90 seconds of broadcast video time to summarize their responses.

“I think it would have been better if they had asked a more open-ended question, like ‘What are the issues most important to you,’ and had more discussion,” Dimond High School sophomore Alex Sedar said after slogging through two out of three sections of the “Discussion Guide.”

All the youths at Sedar’s table had come to the forum to fulfill requirements for class projects, extra-credit or school club activities. They appeared decidedly unenthused about the process at the forum, but it wasn’t because they lacked concern about social or political issues.

When asked what issues mattered most to them, they revealed a passionate concern that wasn’t captured in the format of the forum.

Sedar, an active member of a community-service club at her high school, said she was concerned about the rate of hunger and homelessness in Anchorage, especially among children. She volunteers at the Food Bank of Alaska and says she’ll remain active in fighting homelessness and hunger during her high school years and beyond.

Anne Hopkin, a sophomore from Eagle River High, said a strong family and her faith were central to her aspirations in life. She tutors math students and tries to get good grades so she can get into Bringham Young University. She looks forward to a future where she can be a math teacher, wife and mother.

Brandon Blackly, also an Eagle River high sophomore, said he’s concerned about the world economic crisis, how it could be resolved and whether it would result in a brighter or dimmer future for his generation.

Energy in Dillingham
Youths at the Dillingham site, where discussion could be more free-flowing because of the small number of participants, talked about energy, Pebble mine, subsistence and connecting youths and elders, Dillingham site facilitator Courtenay Carty said.

The micro-management of discussions at the forum could be counted as a miss, but just getting youths together at all seemed to comprise a hit for the new forum.

“They definitely got excited about participating,” Carty said. “It was nice for them to see other students just as interested as they are all around the state,” referring to the video feed views of other students in rooms across the state during the forum.

Youths at the Anchorage site echoed that sentiment, saying they were surprised to be visited by the mayor and to observe local media buzzing around their tables, reporting on what they were doing.

Carty said she thought future forums could benefit from a greater focus on real issues, instead of the broad questions that were posed in the “Discussion Guide” handed out to participants.

That’s more in line with what goes on at the annual Conference of Young Alaskans, she said, which Carty has been a participant in previously.

The Conference of Young Alaskans is in its third year. The Forum of Young Alaskans was a stab at getting youths engaged prior to the conference, which will be held at the Alyeska Resort  from Jan. 3-6.

What the Forum of Young Alaskans clearly demonstrated is that there are plenty of youths around the state who are interested in taking a leadership role, who are concerned about the future and want to help shape it.

Dimond High School sophomore Alex Sedar had signed up to be a volunteer with the forum, but she ended up as a participant because, “they didn’t have anything for me to do.”

Putting her on the podium to kick off some of the discussions, instead of having adults direct every aspect of the forum, might have been more in the direction of the “revolutionary” discussion that organizers hoped would happen.