The 2010-11 Youth Advisory Board
Amanda AzizBeing a true believer in the Socratic Method (no, seriously) and a 16 year-old high school junior living in London, Ontario, Canada, Amanda believes that asking questions might just get her somewhere. Even when it comes to finding her way out of the superficial labyrinth that is known as school, she is not one who refrains from a challenge. Reading novels and asking questions are what satisfies her need to learn, and to get insight on different cultures (and pop culture!), languages (she hopes to be fluent in seven… good luck with that) to International Law/Social Justice and trends. Though she has many interests, she insists that music, hiding in the library at lunch time, volunteering, being a member of Junior Achievement, making insanely bad jokes, and wishing at 11:11 to be the “few” staples she can always rely on. Another passion of hers? Writing- whether it is songs, poetry or stories, which is why Amanda is so excited to be a member of the YAB for Ypulse. Maybe asking questions might just get her somewhere after all?
Nicole Del Rosario
Nicole is all over the place. This first year University student can constantly be seen with a frantic look in her eyes associated with lack of sleep from doing work or just staying up late for no reason, a habit she regrets quite frequently. She counts volunteering at local animal shelters and the library as passions as well as music and writing. Her writing currently takes the form of unfinished story drafts and poems that are written in battered journals scattered all over her room. Another thing you should know is her passion for millinery takes the form of making hats covered in butterflies. She tried in vain to come up with something witty for this but decided to spend that brain energy to knit instead. Oh, and she loves cats.
Collin DeverCollin relocated to the Southern tip of the United States, for a refocus of priorities. He began attending Valencia Community College, and one day an epiphany came to him, do what you love. Collin began photographing for the school’s newspaper and has since developed his photography, writing, design, and journalistic skills. Along the way he landed an internship in the school’s Marketing Department. Now a part-time job Collin works as a photographer for school events, as well as assisting on various advertising projects and campaigns. He has begun to dabble in marketing, working on projects focused at reaching the student body. Collin’s passion above all things is storytelling using whatever medium possible. Dream job, photographer for National Geographic.
Skyanne Fisher
Skyanne Fisher was the girl skipping school in fourth grade to stay home and write. Now in high school, Skyanne still spends most her time writing. She also reviews books and writes for her school paper. She’s obsessed with foreign cultures, loves cities, and can’t stand small towns. It’s her goal to be fluent in multiple languages and she hopes to major in writing at Columbia College Chicago. In the mean time, she spends her time daydreaming about the days when she’ll be traveling the world.
Jack GriegConstantly searching for new forms of expression, writing and reading have become a major part of Jack’s life. He is drawn to adventure, travel being one of his greatest passions. He is a great believer in the power of youth and their innate ability to set trends and transform their environment around them for the better. From his home in Brisbane, Australia where he is in the final stages of completing a major in International Relations he dreams of new ways to see and experience everything the world has to offer.
Dan Jubelirer
Dan Jubelirer is a high school senior from Durham, NC. He has worked as an activist for sexual and reproductive health and rights, blogged about politics and culture for three years, and enjoys volunteering for political campaigns. His interests range from social entrepreneurship to “Mad Men,” international relations to dance, and frozen yogurt at unbeatable prices, but he is often found just working to complete senior year (and applying to college!) He also plays mandolin and guitar, and does modern dance. You can find his blog posts not related to youth media on Dailykos at http://www.dailykos.com/user/TeenAdvocateDan and follow him on twitter @teenadvocatedan.
Andrej Jovanchevski
Andrej comes from Macedonia – a tiny, but lovely country sandwiched in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula. He’s currently studying economics in high school and aims to pursue a career in financial management, but considers versatility to be one of his best traits. Journalism, in particular, has come to be one of his greatest passions. He’s been a host of a youth TV programme since March 2009 and was a young reporter at the inaugural Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. As founder and an active member of a charity organization called TALENTI, he is dedicated to realizing its vision: help disadvantaged people and parentless children develop their numerous aptitudes and pave the way to their complete social integration. With the wish to become a true cosmopolitan, he is also keen on learning languages and aspires to get an insight into various cultures. He’s definitely got the travel bug and while waiting for the chance to orbit the world, he delves into the most promising alternative – books. In his spare time he enjoys taking up tons of other hobbies, stamp collecting being the one that he’s currently hooked on.
Nita Tyndall
Nita is a junior from North Carolina. She hates writing about herself, especially in third person. She enjoys playing the piano (everything from Rachamaninoff to Sara Bareilles), writing, drinking tea, sign language, and reading books. She’s slightly obsessed with Sylvia Plath and psychology. When she’s not planning world domination, she writes novels that she hopes will be published someday.
Alyssa Wee
Alyssa is a student from Singapore and plans to add an Asian perspective to the YAB. Apart from being an avid reader and writer, Alyssa loves planning youth-related events and incorporates her passion towards fashion in them. In 2009, she organized A Charity Fashion Fest which not only raised $10, 000 towards Habitat for Humanity Singapore, but served as a platform that enabled budding student fashion designers to showcase their designs. During her free time, Alyssa loves traveling, watching YouTube videos, indulging in Korean/Japanese soap operas (give her a good film or read and she’d be glued on for hours!) and exploring the blogosphere. Alyssa aspires to work in a marketing and events planning firm or simply churn out articles for fashion/lifestyle magazines in the future. To share is to inspire and to inspire is to share!
Kat is a junior in high school struggling with Depression, ADD, and Social Anxiety Disorder. She spends her weekends volunteering with her local no-kill animal shelter, one of the few places her anxiety won’t grip her, and she lives with her two parents, cat, and four dogs. When she grows up, she wants to be a vet tech. In addition to volunteering, she loves to write, read, and play video games.
Nathaniel LewisNathaniel is a young man virtually always on the go. Currently living between two countries — The Bahamas, which he calls home, and Canada, for University — he is living life to it’s fullest and is determined to experience the best of both worlds — not to mention both climates as well. He is very passionate about media, travel, the arts, politics and business. When not at school or working on the next big entrepreneurial adventure, he enjoys experiencing nightlife, culture shows, cooking and writing poetry and listening to music. Filled with energy and enthusiasm, he is ready to embrace all that the world has to offer.
Caroline MarquesCaroline is an American student in eleventh grade in Geneva, Switzerland and enjoys it a lot. This year will be her second year serving on the Youth Advisory Board, which she loves because she’s currently an international student and she likes keeping up with the numerous U.S. trends in various departments. Between YAB, sports, school (as well as traveling, trying to master several languages, spending a lot of time on the computer, writing long papers, music and watching American TV), she doesn’t have a lot of time on her hands, but always finds time for the two passions she’s always had: reading and writing.
Jacelle Soleil Manara
Soleil is studying Mass Communications, with specialization in Development Communication. She believes that as a media practitioner you become the brains of the nation; as a development communicator you become the heart of the nation. She aspires to be part of her country’s (Philippines) growth and development. Balancing her studies and fulfilling her obligations as the President of Environment Society in her College has always been a challenge to her. Soleil is a bookworm and reads anything from Darwin to Wilde. She is also courting writing and is afraid she might up end up marrying it.
Camilla Nord
Camilla Nord is in her final year at Oxford University, where she has been studying physiology and psychology since she moved from Washington, D.C. She also grew up partly in Budapest, Hungary, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal in her very early years. When she’s not writing essays, she is probably painting, practicing Bikram yoga, and thinking about manatees. When she IS writing essays, her favorite part of the brain is the basal ganglia, and her favorite neurotransmitter (those chemicals that shoot around the brain sending signals) is dopamine. The recent involvement of neuroscience techniques in product development and marketing has driven her interest in Ypulse, coupled with a lifelong love of writing– and, of course, a healthy obsession with pop culture.
Bryan Spencer
Alyx SteadmanAlyx Steadman is a junior in Montana, where he frequently appears in musicals and writes about the world around him. His interest in current media and its effect upon the youth of today leads him to slave away many-an-hour on the computer, absorbing every piece of pop culture his brain allows him to retain. Having a strong belief in equality and a fascination with media, he hopes to pursue a career in journalism where he can spread his advice and opinion to all the millions of Internet junkies just like him. He’d like to continue to thank Ypulse for the opportunity to write about topics that are interesting and specifically pertain to him.
Crystal C. Yan
Crystal C. Yan is a trilingual Chinese-American social entrepreneur, blogger, and graphic designer. Originally from California, Crystal is currently a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She is passionate about social entrepreneurship and is the cofounder of the Social Startup Summit, a conference that impacted students from 9 high schools to start 4 service projects and is the coproducer of What’s Next: 25 Big Ideas from Gen-Yers Under 25, a collaborative book project on the power of youth featuring youth contributors from Seattle to Sierra Leone. Crystal also started an internship program for high school and college students while in high school, worked as a consultant in the pro-bono division of a consulting firm to help a non-profit expand its donor and volunteer program in its 50 centers throughout the Bay Area and led 6000 students to raise $160,000+ for water filters for the Hydraid Foundation. Crystal has spoken on youth culture and marketing, personal branding, and social entrepreneurship at Stanford University, the Supernova Conference/University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and more. An avid blogger, Crystal blogs at http://crystaly.wordpress.com and has also contributed to USA Today, Ashoka, SocialEarth, and YoungEntrepreneurs and has been honored by Congressman Mike Honda, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, California State Senator Joe Simitian for her service to the City of Cupertino. Learn more at http://crystalcyan.com and http://crystaly.wordpress.com
Chelsea Swiggett is a writer and lover of books. She has an addiction to pop culture, from movies and tv shows to books and celebrities. She loves traveling and plans to hit every state in the U.S. before heading out of the country. You can find her at thepageflipper.blogspot.com for her opinion on books.
Julia TanenbaumJulia is a freshman in high school in Claremont California. A self proclaimed Otaku (anime obsessive person) she strives to complete her immersion into the world of Japanese pop culture. In between school and homework she watches the latest Japanese anime on the internet, reads manga, plays video games, and practices Japanese. Though she is not a fabulous writer by nature, Julia does enjoy writing fan fiction related to said interests and occasionally immersing herself in online role-play sessions. In addition, she loves mashing up anime and game clips into anime music videos which she posts on YouTube, participating in her school’s debate team in novice LD, and of course reading. Julia is incredibly excited to be on the Youth Advisory Board, and able to express her opinions, which she has plenty of.
Emily SmuckerEmily is happiest when she is drinking tea and reading a book in a sunny room. She is twenty years old and currently a freshman in college. Majoring in communications and minoring in elementary education, Emily also loves to write books, make short films, and design clothes on the side. She is obsessed with modifying and embellishing thrift store clothes. Her first book, titled “Emily,” was published in 2009, and she hopes to publish more books in the future. Emily is easy to spot…if you look in a room and see someone drinking tea and writing snail mail to her friends, that’s her!
Robbie WanamakerRobbie works for the online community management and moderation company Metaverse Mod Squad. He has a passion for entrepreneurs and social media. Having a love for music since a very young age, he continues to play cello and jazz drums. When Robbie isn’t playing video games or consuming his favorite podcasts, you can usually find him hunting down the perfect shot of espresso. Born and raised near Sacramento, CA, he is currently attending Sierra College.
Christopher WalcottChristopher graduated from Caribbean Union College Secondary School and is in a process of acquiring a BS Degree in Computing and an Associated Degree in General Business at the University of the Southern Caribbean. There, Christopher Walcott became passionate about being a social entrepreneur. From a young age, he has been involved in an active youth group called Pathfinders, and has aided in building shelters for the poor, clean-up campaigns, anti-drug marches and being a positive male role model in society. His love for youth work, ambition and enthusiasm got him nominated to be a Youth Member of Parliament to promote the youth voice. During his tenure, he was involved in the Common Wealth Heads of Government Youth Forum (CYF) 2009 where he was one of the founding members of the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Economic Society. With his continuing involvement and development in youth activities, he was selected by the British Council out of sixty (60) young social entrepreneurs from the world to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the first ever Latin America and Caribbean Youth Summit (LACYS) 2010, in Rio, De Janerio Brazil. You can learn more about Christopher on his blog: walcottc.wordpress.com.
Michael HayballMichael lives a simple life in Allen Park, MI. When he is not attending Henry Ford Community College for his Associates, he can be seen chatting and socializing around campus and the local coffee shop. He enjoys a good iced caramel cappuccino, or a regular coca-cola. Michael loves what he calls “The Blog Music,” and he was and still is raised on a steady diet of electronic music and old-school hip hop.