Celia Tamez -January 21 - March 19, 2003

 Kristin Lee-University of California, Santa CruzApril 22 - June 6, 2003

Jessica Seay-State University of New York at BinghamtonJune 2 - July 25, 2003

Cecily Swanson-Reed College, Portland, ORMay 27 - July 25, 2003

Lisa K. Man-University of Virginia, CharlottesvilleMay 27 - July 31, 2003

Shannon Kroll- Idaho State UniversitySummer Independent Internship

Frauke Richter-University of Hamburg, GermanyAugust 11 - October 10, 2003

Jin-a Yang-Chosun University, South KoreaApril 14, 2003 - April 2004

Jin-a Yang

Chosun University, South Korea

April 14, 2003 - April 2004

Jin-a Yang is from South Korea. She has traveled to India, Laos, and Bangladesh where she participated in volunteer programs.Her major at the Chosun University was political science. While working at WIFP, she wanted to expose issues affecting Korean women through magazines, periodicals, newspapers, television, and radio.

Jin-a was the print production editor of the 2004 edition of the Directory of Women's Media and of the 2003 print edition of Voices for Media Democracy.

She produced this (and other) WIFP graphics:

Frauke Richter

University of Hamburg, Germany

August 11 - October 10, 2003

Frauke Richter wrote articles for the WIFP print newsletter, Voices for Media Democracy. Frauke made many contributions while at WIFP, including research and writing for the online newsletter (several months) about violence against women and the role of media.

In the fall I will continue my studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany as a sophomore. My current majors are American Studies and Sociology which I'm planning on extending by taking classes in political sciences.

Growing up as a girl in the modern western society I hadn't been confronted with either feminist concerns or women's rights ideas. Through visiting countries in Europe and touring Northern America I had been introduced to foreign cultures and societies. Travelling opened my view to what's happening not only in those countries but also around me.

I realized that women aren't given the opportunity to speak out and contribute to the society as much as they could even though women have great qualities a society would profit from. Over the time I had to learn that women aren't close to being treated as equal as I thought they were.
Female genital mutilation is a major problem in Africa but even our western society is facing problems such as rape, gender abuse and molestation, pornography and prostitution.

It appeared to me that the reason why I didn't know about women's activism was because I didn't see the need for such activism. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one thinking that way which I experienced when telling family, friends, and acquaintances about my summer internship with the WIFP. Almost exceptionally I earned an ironic or arrogant facial expression when mentioning the term feminist. And I have to admit that not too long ago that expression had been on my face, too. The term feminism, in our society, is generally used to describe women who seem to fight for , in our eyes, ridiculous concerns like feminist linguistics. People don't think there's a need for feminist activism and therefore they don't pay attention to what women's organizations are really trying to change and achieve. Generally, feminists are still not taken seriously.

Being a young women living in a metropolitan city and travelling a lot I have become aware of the problem of violence against women which even I would be confronted with by being molested by men in a bar or a club, passing prostitutes on the way to the bar, hearing about a girl who had been raped around the corner that night.

My major project while working at the WIFP has been a booklet on violence against women. I have done a lot of research on issues like rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, prostitution and so on.

The work at the institute and attending various meetings of women's organizations over the past two months in DC taught me that there is a lot that can be and, in fact, is being done for empowering women and their rights. It was very inspiring to see all the activism and the people in DC willing to contribute their work to an important cause like women's rights. I sincerely hope that, one day, I will be able to make such a contribution myself, helping to make this world a better place.

I enjoyed my time at the WIFP very much and thank Martha for the opportunity to work with her and learn from her.

Shannon Kroll

Idaho State University

Summer Independent Internship

At the Federal Communications Commission Hearing, May 27, 2003, Washington, DC
Shannon Kroll is the second from right in this photo. To her right is Martha Allen, Director of WIFP. To Shannon's left is Cecily Swanson. Lisa Man is to the left of Cecily.

Shannon Kroll was a contributing editor for the Directory of Women's Media.

I am a recent graduate of the sociology department at Idaho State University. My favorite topics of study during my undergraduate program were social theory, research methodology, and social stratification. I am extremely interested in social movements and their development, human rights, and art history. I plan to pursue a master's degree in sociology or policy analysis so that I can further explore my interests in these areas. At Idaho State University I served for one year as the public relations officer for the ISU branch of Golden Key National Honors Society and was an active member of Phi Kappa Phi.

While researching summer internships, I came across the WIFP web site. I knew immediately that this would be my type of organization. I was fascinated by the philosophies that are central to the work done at WIFP. During my internship I hope to learn more about the women's media movement and the social change processes that were involved in its development while also researching various other aspects of the women's media movement. I believe that my internship here will be an invaluable experience that will have a positive impact on my life for years to come.

Lisa K. Man, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

May 27 - July 31, 2003

Lisa Man just finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, where she completed a double major in Economics and English literature. During her time at the University, Lisa served as the Vice President of Chinese Christian Fellowship, Editor-in-Chief of Inkstone Literary Magazine (Asian American creativity and expression) and Copy Editor for the Cavalier Daily. Her interests include reading a thought-provoking anything, Asian American issues and advocacy for equality among different groups. In the fall, she will be attending Pace Law School in White Plains, New York. At the WIFP, Lisa plans on exploring issues such as women's representation in media on college campuses and the coverage of women's sports in womens media in comparison to the treatment of similar issues in mass media. But as always, she is open to suggestions and new ideas that might strike her fancy.

Cecily Swanson, Reed College, Portland, OR

May 27 - July 25, 2003

Cecily Swanson is a junior at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She is majoring in English, with a specific interest in 19th century poetry and poetics. She is an intern for the Reed admissions office, a writing tutor, and, in the fall, will assume leadership of the Feminist Student Union (FSU). Last March, to kick off women's history month, Cecily organized a panel discussion with four professors titled "A Brief History of Sexism." Cecily spoke about the complicated role of young women in the third wave of feminism.

Cecily first found out about WIFP when she did a search on Reed's server for feminist organizations in Washington, DC. She had recently read an article about the dearth of women journalists in mass media, and the increasing marginalization of women and minority voices in public discourse, so was attracted to WIFP's mission to democratize the media. Her interests in writing and feminist activism corresponded with the opportunities offered at the WIFP. During her internship at the WIFP, she hopes to work on a research paper on the history of women's media, and help the WIFP with its important work to make media resources available to all.

I am a junior majoring in English at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. I have been involved in feminist activism since I was old enough to attend my first march for choice, and have been engaged in women's studies both in high school and in college. At Reed, I handle secretarial and organizational duties of our Feminist Student Union (FSU) and hope to assume FSU leadership in the fall.

Even at an extremely liberal college like Reed, it can be difficult to make feminist prospectives heard. FSU's work is often met with disinterest; there is an unfortunate tendency, I think, among lefty intellectuals to claim we are at a stage of "post-feminism." Such an attitude is uninteresting -- it does not investigate, interrogate, or enlighten as academic discourse should -- but most importantly, it is silencing. I was interested in interning at the WIFP because I felt it was doing something very necessary and usually missing: providing women resources to speak and write for themselves. Mainstream media represents only a fraction of public opinion; here must be alternative media sources if the public is to be accurately represented.

In this first month at WIFP I have grown increasingly aware of the importance of independent media, especially women's media. Just in the little research I've done so far, I am struck by the strength and determination of all the small women's media sources across the country. For instance, the number of feminist magazines for young girls encourages me. These did not exist when I was little (and that wasn't so long ago)! Despite what mainstream media might say, the women's movement is not dead, but growing stronger. I hope to return to Reed with an increased ability to speak out, and encourage other feminists to do the same.

Jessica Seay, State University of New York at Binghamton

June 2 - July 25, 2003

Jessica Seay is currently a student attending the State University of New York at Binghamton. She will be starting her junior year in the fall and is anxious to further pursue her major of Political Science. She has many political interests particularly concerning women's issues and has aspirations of creating a student group for protecting women's rights at her university. Jessica is involved with the Student Democratic group on campus and has also helped with the activist group NYPIRG. In the future she would like to attend law school and confront major issues involving the interests of women in local government.

I will be attending my junior year of college at the State University of New York at Binghamton. During my life, I have always been active in politics and interested in women's issues. For that reason, I decided to major in the field of political science. At college, I have been active in the College Democrats and am eager to get students interested in politics so that young people can see the importance in using their voting power. However, I was astonished and rather disappointed that I was only one out of two women participating in the group. I decided to intern at WIFP to learn more about the women's movement and what it has accomplished through newspapers, magazines, and all areas of media.

I researched the topic of pornography and have learned a great deal about what the harms of pornography are. I have also been fortunate to attend several Senate committee hearings about what the ruling of the FCC could do to damage the important goal of media democracy. The activities that I have participated in have caused me to appreciate all of the media outlets women have created and how important it is to support them. In addition, hopefully through all of my learning at WIFP, I will grasp abetter view of what feminist politics is and how I can utilize the media to mobilize more women students at my school to participate in government.

Kristin Lee

University of California, Santa Cruz

April 22 - June 6, 2003

Kristin Lee is finishing up a double major in Modern Literature and Journalism at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has worked as a writing tutor at the University for 3 of her 4 years. Kristin has written about women's issues, politics, and music for her school newspaper. She also edited and wrote for Leviathan, a journal of politics and the arts, helping to create a cd magazine, one of the first of its kind. Kristin has also worked as an editorial assistant at the L.A. Times.

WIFP had strong appeal for Kristin as it combines her lifelong passions of feminism and journalism. She is currently working on issues of media advocacy and regulation policies, focusing specific attention on the Federal Communications Commision. Kristin wrote a lengthy research article on the June 2 FCC decision, as well as a shorter piece for the newsletter. She looks forward to continue working as an associate of WIFP when her internship ends. She is currently researching for a new booklet in WIFP's booklet series.

The Federal Comminications Commision's recent June 2 decision and the protests/meetings leading up to it were my focus while working at WIFP. Through focusing on the FCC and media democracy, I learned a great deal about the ways in which media consolidation and corporatism affects the daily lives of citizens in a democracy. Writing and researching the FCC strengthened my beliefs in WIFP's principles -- I realized the necessity of creating a media system where women can speak for themselves and have their voices reach other people.

Through my internship at WIFP, I was fortunate to attend many different events. I represented WIFP at the bi-monthly meeting of the National Council of Women's Organizations. I attended several Congressional events, including several Senate Commerce Committee meetings involving the FCC and media democracy. I also attended a scientific panel on Women's Health and Silicone Breast implants, attended the National Organization for Women's Presidential Breakfasts with Democratic candidates for the 2004 election, including candidates Carol Mosely Braun and Dennis Kucinich. Attending these events helped broaden my knowledge of both feminist organizations and the importance of media democracy. My internship at WIFP has strengthened my knowledge and beliefs -- I look forward to continuing to work as both a media activist and WIFP associate.

Link to her article "The FCC and Media Democracy"

Celia Tamez

(January 21 - March 19)

Celia Tamez ws a high school senior at The Graham School in Columbus, Ohio. Her unique 'Walkabout' (an experiential fundamental for all Seniors at TGS, comprised of full time internships) allowed Celia to travel to Washington DC for a winter quarter to work with the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press.

Celia aspires to become an educator. With passions including writing, sociology, alternative education, and creative art, Celia had an outlet for all her interests at WIFP.

Celia was a contributing editor for the International Directory of Women's Media and provided WIFP with its logo. See many of the WIFP web pages, including "about us" to view her logo art.

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My Path to WIFP

By Celia Tamez

I have grown up often feeling I am not quite enough. Not Mexican enough for my extended family, not middle-American enough to please my 'friends'. I was never logical enough for the 'major majority' and not radical enough for those who believed 'they' were. In my 18 years on this earth I've come close to becoming a conditioned clone because of my environment. Discovering that 'me' was all I needed to be in order to be happy, saved me, in as many ways as a person can be saved.

As much as I try to avoid cliché's in life, I've found that avoiding one, only creates another. So with this in mind, allow me to describe the first 10 years of my life. I was born to a 19-year old mother and a 21-year old father in a small town on the southern border of Colorado. I was raised in part by my many aunts and great, great aunts; dressed up in frilly dresses and crooned over. My parents divorced 4 years after I was born and my mother an I moved 400 miles away to other side of the state. I never really knew until a few years ago, that my mom and I lived in section 8 housing. The fact that we had generic labeled food that we paid for with food stamps never equated with misfortune to me. And so I grew older, my mom got her masters degree in social work and moved us, yet again to Ohio, middle-America's heartland.

Wanting to put me into the best schools, my mom moved us into the very outskirts of a very affluent, predominantly white city/neighborhood. My first day entering 5th grade I mentally calculated how many other brown faces I saw. My total, out of 30 was zero. I did very poorly in school, save English, music and art classes. By my freshman year of high school I had a 2.4 GPA. Everyone around me thought I was strange. I made my own clothes, I had "out there" ideasI rejected the social norms sometimes out of fear that they would reject me. No one ever considered that I made my own funky clothes because I couldn't afford to shop where other students did. My "out-there" opinions were never thought to be product of being raised by a single parent grappling with her own social ideals.

Throughout all this my developing personality took on labels of "writer, singer, artist, radical". Soon I wanted to be more unique, more different. To prove not only was I bohemian and strange but exotic and ethnic and boriqua. So when I enrolled in Spanish class everyone suspected I did so for an easy grade. I always chose a back row seat and kept my head down lest I get called on and discovered. Here I was a Brown girl with Brown name and I couldn't even speak in that Brown language. My classmates were all shocked when they found out. The truth was, I hadn't learned it because my mother and father hadn't learned it. My grandparents, as well as most of their generation, weren't proud of their culture or ethnicity, and so, they chose not to perpetuate it in their children. I learned Spanish in high school from a blonde woman named Smith.

Fast forward five years to today. When "Latino" is the answer to the question "what is your ethnic background?" the next step is usually a barrage of Spanish sentences strung together by some poor person who looks at me with hope and awaits my equally eloquent, Spanish answer. When they hear my faulty, slang-ridden response, a light fades from their eyes. They had been hoping for an authentic experience, and they got the discount version instead.

I had much less struggle proving I was "progressive" enough. Anyone who met me saw that I was loud and blunt and always talking about some 'cause' or 'movement' and that seemed enough for them. I became the token for my circle of associates, and looking back on it now, I think I was okay with that. It wasn't until a little later I realized I got lonely when I was the only one like me.

My sophomore year, things drastically changed. I moved from that bubble of a suburb to the north side of town. People there shopped at Target, and Wal-Mart and other assorted, two-syllable worded "mega stores." I was no longer the token brown skin, in fact, I was anything but. All around me I saw neighbors from Africa, Mexico, and the Philippines. I of course, also had to switch high schools. My designated "home school" had over 1,200 students and was not known for its scholastic excellence. I was hesitant to enroll because I had grown accustomed to such bland surroundings. However, one morning at the kitchen table, a week before school was supposed to start, I came across a small ad in a local newspaper. A new charter school by the name of The Graham School was opening up about a mile away from me, and was still accepting students. It presented itself as a progressive school and also very community oriented. I decided to check this place out, before I jumped into that anonymous pool of a home school.

On my first day of this new school I entered a re-vamped strip mall store. It still had the store sign on the front of it, and the walls inside were still made of dry wall. Students milled around in small clusters. I knew no one. I once again, from years of practice and fear went into "unique" mode. I took out my journal, and started writing. I wrote letters to friends I knew would never receive them. I wrote descriptions of the people I saw. A boy wearing giant UFO pants, a giant hooded sweatshirt and a visor approached me, and sat down next to me on the floor. He was something I had never really been around before. He was an "individual" too. He started talking and didn't stop. He told me about his being in jail, his girlfriend being pregnant, and this school being his last chance. I was so struck by his openness that for the first time I felt I didn't need to expose myself, just to feel comfortable. He told me he had approached me because I reminded him of an old friend. In my own world, I had never seen myself as being like anyone, and this comment almost annoyed me as much as it surprised me.

Teachers slowly began to trickle into the room, though some didn't look much older than us. We found out that we were sitting in what was to be called, "the big room", the center of our school and community. One by one teachers began introducing themselves. Not as Mr. Brown or Ms. Jordan, but as Greg, Jenn, Eileen, etc. I was awestruck at the idea that people considered to be our 'superiors' would allow us to address them so lightly. I found out soon, they didn't consider themselves to be superior to anyone. Throughout the day, kids of all different races, ages, and economic backgrounds filtered in and out of rooms. Almost all of them seemed to be some version of myself. Some carried guitars around on their backs, others giant sketch books. More still clustered around computers talking excitedly about the programming and coding they planned to do.

By the end of the day, I realized this place would change me. Already, I had made friends with people who had been the outcasts, the jocks, the popular ones, and those who never felt quite right anywhere before. Within the next 3 years, I allowed that shell I had spent so many years building, melt away. I allowed my peers to teach me, often just by watching them. I slowly understood that the person I was, was better than any person I ever pretended to be. Now, almost 3 years later, I am in Washington D.C because of my school. We have a program called Walkabout that allows us to pursue full-time internships at places of our choice. And because I was able to pursue and develop my arts and writing skills so much within the walls of my school, I chose to flex my "activist" muscles on my walkabout. I was accepted to work with the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) for a two-month internship. I thought it would be the perfect place to combine my love for writing and my desire to become active in the women's movement.

My first day, I arrived at the home and office of WIFP and was greeted by Martha Allen the Director of the Women's Institute. Upon arriving, she asked me if I wanted to go to a National Council of Women's Organizations. I of course jumped at the chance to attend such an interesting meeting my first day. But, rather than saying, "Okay, we leave at 3." she said, "Okay, here's the address and how to get there". Immediately I got scared. I didn't know the city, and I didn't know the people. I felt a strong urge to build that shell I had grown accustomed to so many years before. But rather than do that I instead braved the metro and found my way to the meetings. I sat down amongst over 70 women representatives from just as many organizations, and had that old feeling creep over me. I, the one who had always prided herself about being progressive and "with it" felt like an outsider. I watched for over 2 hours as these strong, amazing women spoke, one after the other on issues I had only heard mentioned in passing before. I went home feeling a sense of empowerment and worry. On one hand, I had just experienced something I found to be very powerful. Women making discussions that made a difference in the lives of others. On the other hand, I found myself wondering exactly what they were talking about several times throughout the conference. Part of me wanted to just dismiss it as having been the unknown's issues. But, the more I thought about it, I realized, the environment I live in typically (in Ohio) isn't highly political. Whenever I had seen problems with political structure, or issues going on in the world, I didn't know where to go to seek out more information. So, it wasn't that I wasn't smart enough to know what was going on, I had just started a little later in the game.

Returning the next day to WIFP, I excitedly reported back to Martha all of the things and people I had seen. Such a drastic comparisons of Washington D.C to Columbus were everywhere. The more I talked, the more I started to get a feeling of being wronged in some way. I felt I deserved to be exposed to these types of issues. It becomes habit to want to place blame when we feel sad or uncomfortable. I wanted to blame someone for not teaching me, or exposing me to everything these other people knew about. Before I could allow myself to feel sorry for myself, I realized two things. The first being, those I've been raised by, grown accustomed to, may not know anything more about these subjects than I, so how could they possibly teach me? The second being, I'm here now, so why not use now as an opportunity to learn? This second thought being almost overly obvious, felt silly for ever expecting to know something I had never properly been exposed to.

The more I work with Martha and the Institute, I the more analytically I look at things. Example, today, I stopped at CVS for some batteries. I have always avoided those teeny, hot pink magazines, because in the past I'd let them lead me to believe I was not beautiful, undesirable and not "girly enough". So, as I forked over my five bucks to the cashier, I glanced to my right and saw in bright blue lettering, "What is Sexy?!?" plastered on the cover of Cosmo Girl, or maybe it was Seventeen. So, now might be a good time to ask, "Why do I need to read that in order to know how to be 'sexy' and by the way, who's asking??" And while were at it, why do we as a general public need advice on how to be appealing, when were given little to no insight on how to love ourselves as we are? I stopped myself before walking out of the door to realize, due to my new exposure (the very same of which I was demanding) I was able to better critically look at what it was as a society were being fed in the media. When I got to the office this morning, I talked to Martha about what I just realized, and it was a great feeling.

Another thing this place has provided for me, is a new perspective. Even if because I'm treading on different soil, I have been able to take a few steps back and a few steps to the side to look at things slightly differently. Because I'm in the Nation's Capitol, a Mecca for all things political, there are a plethora of protests, demonstrations and marches for almost as many causes as there are people. Of course, things are amplified because of this, I can't imagine everyone here owns their own picket sign and riot gear. However, it was because of the commonality of the activist movement being so prevalent here I had another realization.

Not to sound too "motivational speaker turned after-school special". I hate that. But, the most amazing part about being a young woman of color becoming more and more involved in the movement, is the sense of belonging that I have found. All of the years of feeling out of place, not enough, too much, are slowly starting to be worth it, just because I am making up for them now. Of course, I still have a lot to get used to. I'm still swimming in acronyms and caucuses here, but at least I'm not fearful of drowning. I don't mind asking questions that show I don't know everything, that I might not know anything. The best part is realizing that the people I'm learning from probably had a similar life until they found what they wanted to do and become a part of as well. And maybe one day, I'll be a well-adjusted individual with my head on straight and a well-lit path leading to my destined future of always belonging. But, if not, I'm sure I'll still be fine. I don't mind a little struggle.