Young Iowans Finding Their Place

There's a huge disparity between what cis men and cis women and nonbinary folks and trans folks are getting paid in the music industry.

CIS men are making 88% more than cis women in Des Moines.

Less than 5% of the people and the folks that produce the media that we engage with.

5% representation of cis women, nonbinary and trans folks.

That's a pretty astounding lack of voices.

You ready to rock out this summer?

Awesome.

We serve cis girls nonbinary and trans youth ages 8 to 18, and we're cusping on seven year olds too.

We are a year round program.

We have a flagship program that occurs during the summer and that's Rock camp.

It's a two week immersive experience where young people learn how to play an instrument.

They form bands, write original songs, record those original songs.

We're going to take a moment to find our voice.

And this is an opportunity for you to just say your name as loud as humanly possible and then say, I rock!

Come on, DJ, I know you've got this.

What is your name?

Oh, yeah.

We're going back inside.

They'll come in on day one.

We assign them an instrument.

We're going.

To play a little clip from your your song that you're going to be performing at the Showcase on Sunday in two weeks at.

Woolys.

We've got Levi on bass for the second year in a row on keys and voice.

We've got Megan.

Yeah, we're stretching, We're trying new things.

We're getting courageous.

This is the one.

Time you get to make all the noise you.

Want.

We have campers that have never played an instrument ever.

Your drummer.

You've won.

Thank you.

Every single day they get a 20 minute instrument lesson with our band coaches.

If you're brand new to guitar, maybe that is going to be hard to play.

So maybe you might start by just doing something like this.

They have two band rehearsals a day.

And then there's a variety of workshops and classes that we offer.

We're very chaotic at moments.

We can be very we can get off topic.

I really like it.

It's really different from school because everyone's so like accepting of everything Oh, you give me goose bumps, I'm gonna.

Be in a band.

Coach.

You get to help pull the things out of them and it really is a pulling.

There's no talking to you.

There's no talk.

Do you believe in life after love?

That's awesome.

I love that.

We'll see kids not really feeling confident.

You can see it.

Others are just like, I have all of this energy and all these ideas.

I just got to get it out there because it's the first time I feel as though someone is listening to me.

People talk about empowerment as though it's this arrival point, but it's it's a journey.

It's a constant journey.

And so what we're trying to do is maybe point out like, Hey, you just experienced a moment there.

Why don't you, like, I want to encourage you to take just a pause to recognize I did the thing.

I fully understand why, Ive definitely become more confident.

In just as a musician and as a person, I feel like out of all the days of the year.

I'm definitely more comfortable and confident in who I am.

During Girls Rock.

Tiny tweaks make big change, but there's so much focus on the big change that we forget.

To mark these little moments along the trail.

You've taken the time you're doing the work.

Trust that it's there.

It's like as simple as just being like, okay, grab the stand, grab the mic.

Get your mic out of that stand.

Who takes the time to just break it down in those sort of small ways?

One, two, three, four.

Can you hear the chord changes?

Like, Yeah.

So.

Good morning.

Good morning.

One parent emailed me after day one and was like, My kiddo is totally exhausted.

And the reason they told me they're totally exhausted is because they don't feel as though there's anywhere they don't belong.

And so they just have this.

I want to be everywhere all at once.

In 8 hours, we're able to make that impact.

We talk a.

A lot about more trans youth issues.

And, you know, I'm trans myself, so I feel like it's a really.

Big deal to talk.

About that and people in normalize it.

People are like too scared.

To talk about that kind of stuff.

All the hard work that we have done the past two weeks, three out of the four of you have never played your instruments before, which is really impressive.

You learned a cover songs, which wasn't an easy song, by the way, and you wrote a song in pretty much like 4 to 6 days, which is very impressive.

And so we're at this point where we are nearing our show.

And so whatever we play today is what is perfectly acceptable and awesome at the show.

So yeah.

I think for Girls Rock, it not only changes the lives of the campers, but it changes the lives of everyone involved.

And what I think that does is it takes that change back out into our greater community.

When cis women feel empowered in spaces, when trans people feel seen and safe.

That reverberates across the community.

No pun intended.

I love rock and roll.

I was really, really nervous because usually I get judged a lot.

But nobody did judge me and I made a lot of great friends.

The only thing I know that is real is the sound of a screaming girl.

It's all around.

It's a great experience to increase confidence and also just to learn.

One of like the greatest form of expression, musical expression.

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.

Were asking young people to be seen and heard and that their stories are important and we need to hear them.

We just want to keep pulling that out and keep encouraging them to take those steps, to take that microphone and really make it theirs.

[Coach] First base.

Second base.

Short stop.

Third base.

Left field.

Raise your hand.

[Dylan Heuer] We're here today at the Iowa Baseball Camp for the Deaf.

We're here all week.

We have the camp every morning for children who are deaf and hard of hearing, age 7 to 14 from all over the Midwest.

It's an opportunity for them to not only play baseball but socialize.

It's a fully inclusive environment for deaf and hard of hearing kids.

♪♪ [Coach] Nice job.

Nice speed.

♪♪ [Coach] Looking good.

Looking good.

We're looking good guys!

[Coach] The first thing we're going to work on is our catching and our throwing.

Okay?

So, my first rule is going to be there is absolutely no throwing the ball unless the person you're throwing to is making eye contact with you.

[Dylan Heuer] When I was little, I was involved with a baseball camp for the deaf.

The camp was smaller, but it was so much fun.

I have such fond memories of the time.

There were other deaf kids there.

I could identify with all of them, other individuals that signed.

It was so exciting to be with people like me.

And it was a part of who I am today.

I don't have to experience any of those barriers.

It's just nice to be outside, be my true self.

[Coach John Linden] After he graduated high school and went on to college, the camp kind of died out and when he came back, he revitalized it.

[Nancy Heuer] He came to me and he just said mom, I think I would really like to try and do the baseball camp again.

And he goes, I am deaf, I know with deaf culture that this is really needed.

(clapping) [Nancy Heuer] Dylan organized with the interpreters through the Des Moines Public Schools and interpreters in the community.

We got the coaches back.

We got the volunteers out there.

So yeah, we rebooted it in 2015.

♪♪ [Coach John Linden] The new camp is a lot larger, a lot more volunteers.

It has been great having so many interpreters now and so much help.

[Coach] There we go.

There we go.

Bend those knees now.

Bend those knees, get down.

There you go.

[Ursula Heuer] I have interpreted for a number of these kids or known them just being in the same district as them.

I volunteered for one day to come down.

And then a friend of mine who is also an interpreter and I went to the Iowa Cubs game with the camp and she saw me explaining baseball stuff to the deaf kids and she saw Dylan running around doing all of his baseball stuff with the kids, and sort of thought to herself, hmm.

And ever since then I have been interpreting at camp every single day.

It really is a family affair.

We're all here all week.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

(golf cart engine) [Coach] Catching a couple of fly balls.

[Ursula Heuer] We have a range of hard of hearing to deaf kids.

So not even all the kids sign.

But we have volunteers and interpreters and coaches that know how to work with that whole range.

[Coach] Well done.

Well done.

Here we go!

[Coach John Linden] Some of them have never thrown a baseball or never swung a bat before.

[Coach] Here's a player!

[Coach John Linden] Their eye-hand coordination is amazing because they're paying attention.

They learn very fast.

These kids have phenomenal attention spans.

[Daniel Cronk] My favorite part about baseball camp is that I get to meet other people with my same symptoms and I get to meet a lot of new friends.

I'm not the only one that has hearing aids.

It does really make me feel more included.

[David Cronk] I really like the community here because it kind of just shows you that you're not alone and that even though you do have this impairment that it doesn't have to stop you.

It doesn't have to be a big thing unless you make it a big thing.

[Olivia Gill] We get to play baseball and we get to sign and we get to meet a lot of new friends.

[Sophie Barney] I go to public so I don't go to deaf school.

So, I just hang out with my regular friends.

But here it feels like deaf school and it's fun.

[Dylan Heuer] Growing up they're often isolated in mainstream schools or even within their own family because they aren't able to communicate and so they don't have a sense of who they are.

When they come to camp and they see, wow, there are a lot of other deaf peers here and it helps them find out who they are to identify with these other kids.

Some of them use their voice.

Some don't sign too much but they're meeting other kids that do.

And they're just sort of immersed in the deaf community here and they become proud of who they are, proud of being deaf, proud of deaf culture.

[Nancy Heuer] You can see the kids, they kind of start buddying up after the first and second day and they're making new friends.

They're kind of timid and shy at first maybe.

But then it's like oh wow, everybody is like us.

And it's just heartwarming to see the friendship that are made.

[Coach John Linden] It has been such a rewarding experience seeing the kids grow, seeing their faces when they have success and their high fives and their smiles and just the joy that they have in being able to come out and play and run around the field and hit a ball and throw a ball.

[Coach and players] Good game.

Good game.

Good game.

Good game.

[Ursula Heuer] It's fairly uncommon outside of school sports that a kid is going to have a sign language interpreter.

If it's a school-sponsored sporting event, it will be in that child's IEP that they will have an interpreter present, so they will have an interpreter for those sports.

But playing little league or community leagues or other organizations that put together sporting events, generally don't provide interpreters.

And sometimes that's just a financial thing that they don't have the funds to provide interpreting.

In rural parts of the state there's not interpreters available, even if they had the money to get someone.

[Interpreter] So, one arm, two arms and then look on top of it.

[Sembetu Dalay] There are so many deaf children that are struggling because when they try to use sign, their families want them to speak or use a cochlear implant.

But showing them that we're here, we're signing, it's important, it's so much easier to communicate and have access that way.

And it's find if you want to speak and use your voice if that is one way that you can communicate.

But communicating in sign is such an important part of deaf culture.

It's our language.

♪♪ [Announcer] Also, representing the Iowa Baseball Camp for the Deaf, please welcome Skylar -- [Dylan Heuer] It's a huge deal for the deaf community because the deaf community is going to be celebrated at the game.

The Iowa Cubs team, we're going to be wearing special jerseys honoring this celebration of the deaf community.

♪♪ [Ursula Heuer] They have always gone to an I-Cubs game during the week of camp.

But this is the first year that that I-Cubs have really expanded that to be deaf culture night.

[Dylan Heuer] People from all over the state of Iowa who attend will have some exposure to the deaf community and to support the Cubs as well.

[Dylan Heuer] The camp is everything to me and more and hopefully it is for these young people as well.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Take me out to the ballgame ♪ ♪ Take me out with the crowd ♪ ♪ Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks ♪ ♪ I don't care if I never get back ♪ ♪ Let me root, root, root for the home team ♪ ♪ If they don't win it's a shame ♪ ♪ 'Cause it's one, two, three strikes you're out ♪ ♪ At the old ball game ♪ ♪♪ [Announcer] Nicely done!

Give yourself a hand!

First things first is we're going to get our helmets on, right?

We're going to make sure the sizes we had on last week are the right sizes.

And then after that, we're going to grab our skateboards and we're going to...... Skate club is a fun afterschool activity in the morning public school.

It's a good place to try out skateboarding and see if it's a sport for you.

Oh, right.

A little too tight.

Yeah.

My bad.

You need help with that, Bella?

How's that feel, David?

Good, good.

Here we go.

Can I see how much I gotta tighten it?

How's that feel?

A good.

Start.

Stella.

Nice.

All right.

We're here.

There you go.

It helps when feet too are all the way on the nose and tail.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Looks like you guys might be ready for concrete.

But it's whatever you guys are comfortable with.

We bring 20 skateboards and helmets to get kids on a skateboard.

A lot of them have never been on a board before, so it's pretty exciting.

The first couple weeks, we really work on pushing and balancing and how to stop, how to turn.

For a lot of these kids.

The afterschool clubs are going to be the first experience they have with skateboarding.

We're introducing the sport to kids that may not have had exposure to it in the past.

This is not typically part of gym class.

There's not leagues.

There's not clubs to sign up for.

It's in a place that they're familiar with.

It's with their friends.

It's safe.

We've got qualified instructors.

I want everyone to tell me where I put my front foot on the skateboard.

Exactly.

I'll switch it to get in pushing mode and then riding mode.

Right?

Yeah.

All right.

I was a female skater, and that we were going to have some little girls who might be a little nervous around older boy instructors.

So that's kind of where I came in to show them that skateboarding is not just for the boys.

You can do it too.

One last question.

All right.

What do we yell when our board goes flying?

Oh, boy.

Exactly.

All right.

Are we ready to free skate?

Yes.

All right, let me know if anyone wants to hold hands okay.

All right.

Go right ahead.

Watch out for one another.

Can I see it again?

Do it one more time.

Wow.

You really got it that pretty quickly.

They learned that they've got a need for speed.

And so we start going faster and then learning some tricks, like some toe flips.

That's the one we like to start out with.

The kids really like that one.

Really makes them feel good when they see the board flip.

In elementary, middle school, and early high school, skateboarding was a huge part of my life.

That's where I found confidence.

That's where I learned the benefits of physical activity.

And it's where I made a lot of friends.

And then right after you do it like that and you hold it there, what you want to do is just put all your weight on your front foot and lean forward.

Let me see one.

Yeah, exactly like that.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's pretty much what you're going to do.

You're going to, like, lift it up and you're going to stick out your arm.

Kind of like that, It's different than a lot of sports, but because of that, it attracts different types of people.

And we weren't ready yet.

And so we want to be there to support those kids that often don't find a place in a normal team sport activities.

Sometimes we have kids who come to skate club, maybe a little upset.

They'll tell me, you know, I'm a bad kid.

You know, I'm angry or things at home are tough.

And I just always, always tell them to put that into the skateboard.

I've got a very good.

Yeah, right.

That was it.

That was a full rotation, dude.

Part of the reason why I and others start started skate DSM is because we wanted to give that experience to other kids in the community and show how much skateboarding can impact you know your life, in a positive way.

People don't think of Des Moines when they think of skateboarding.

We're at a world class Lauridsen Skate Park, largest skate park in North America.

It's 88,000ft.

We are celebrating the end of the school year and the end of our after school skate clubs.

with field trips to the skate park.

We're always talking about ways to get our kids off of screens and outside, enjoying the fresh air and getting exercise.

Skateboarding provides that.

Oh, you had it.

You had it for sure.

It's just a way to get your energy out and like, feel all the wind going in your face without having to hold handles like a bike or a scooter.

I got on the board.

And I just fell in love with it.

It's not about becoming a top skateboarder.

It's about progressing and learning and getting better than when you started.

If you just learn how to ride, that's perfectly fine.

If you walk out of the skate club and still don't know how to ride a skateboard, but you had a great time.

We also count that as a big success.

Maybe this will become the thing that they're passionate about.

You know, every kid, particularly at this age, is kind of finding their passion.

We have gone from one school to 16, from one program to 31.

So we've had tremendous growth just over the last year.

We want to expand these opportunities to kids beyond Des Moines.

That's where the future lies with After-School Skate Club.

That feeling of being able to get something that's super tough.

They get to carry that throughout the rest of their day, throughout the rest of their week, and hopefully the rest of their life.

So skateboarding can make you feel pretty capable of some incredible things.

♪♪ ♪♪ It's definitely different days every single day.

Nothing is the same ever.

So, I come in at about 7:50 a.m. We have committee meetings and subcommittee meetings and then we're on the floor.

Representatives will ask you to do things for them.

Get whatever they need like bills or coffee or whatever.

It's not even really that gradual.

Like one week will be slow and then the week after that just really hammer down and put on the gas.

♪♪ (gavel) The House will be in order.

The prayer today will be offered by Representative Gustoff of Polk.

Following the prayer, the pledge will be led by Samantha Olson, our Page from Ankeny.

(gavel) So, for this week one, Olivia I have you on the bill, okay?

Irina, I have you on the switchboard this week.

Iowa House switchboard, how can I direct your call?

And then, mail room and printers, Peyton I have you on that this week.

So, you're all set?

Okay, good.

[Nebbe] The Iowa legislature hires pages each session to assist in the House and Senate chambers.

They are high school students from all over the state, selected from a competitive pool of applicants.

It's a paying job and they gain valuable experience in government.

-- pertaining to 20 over the speed limit.

[Jason Chapman] We give them a couple of weeks to get their feet on the ground.

They spend most of their day on the floor passing notes out, passing mail to different desks.

♪♪ [Jesse Sampson] Notes come in, they are handed to a door keeper, the door keeper brings them over to a desk and presses this button, which alerts us on our board that sits right behind me.

(bell dings) [Jesse Sampson] And the board will tell us where it's coming from.

[Mariana Florez] And so then we take it to the representative.

If they're not here, we go back and say hey, do you want to leave a message for them because they're not here currently.

Or if they are here, we send them out and they go out and talk to them.

[Jesse Sampson] Periodically they'll give us tasks like I've had to put stamps on envelopes.

Pretty much just anything the representatives ask us to do for them that we are there to do it.

We make their load a bit lighter.

(bell dings) The bill here tries to clean up any confusion we might have had -- [Mariana Florez] We run the subcommittees and committees.

[Peyton Hoffman] So, we get here about ten, fifteen minutes before the meetings starts and log into the computer and get the livestream up and running.

And then we just sit.

[Mariana Florez] Anybody can join, the public can join.

They don't get to talk on there.

They can talk in person.

I truthfully didn't know anything that happened, like the subcommittees to committees and then to the floor and then it goes to the Senate or the Senate sends it over here and then it goes to the Governor.

So, all the processes are really interesting.

♪♪ [Irina Ahissou] We have a page uniform that we wear every day.

They supply us with our blazers, pants and the only thing that we get freedom on is our shirts.

But they have to be white.

[Mariana Florez] I think the biggest two rules that stood out to me was you can't walk down the middle aisle.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the House.

[Irina Ahissou] We can't cross the line of vision between the Speaker and a Representative who is talking to them in session or in debate, things like that.

[Jesse Sampson] We also have to be respectful, understand that they are a lot higher position than us and that is our job is to do the things that they ask us to do.

♪♪ [Jason Chapman] We tell the pages that just like the rest of the staff, the professional staff that are here year-round that work for that same office, we're kind of statues on the floor.

We don't show emotion, we don't show eye rolls if somebody says something that we don't agree with and we definitely do not clap or cheer on the floor.

It's a decorum, it's a set of rules that help this place function in the heat of emotion.

♪♪ [Rep. Megan Jones] I am a State Representative from House District 6, which is basically Spencer to Storm Lake.

When I became a page, it allowed me an opportunity to move to Des Moines, be in an apartment with a couple of other pages, friends.

I came in this scared, meek, seventeen-year-old page and I found a network of people that fit me really well.

I gained a lot of confidence.

I got to interact with legislators and people in a world that I really wanted to be a part of.

And so, I really think it helped me kind of find my way and be more confident in where I was headed.

[Mariana Florez] My favorite part is probably getting to know the legislators, all of the representatives and to hear where they have come from and how they got here.

[Irina Ahissou] I've met a couple of my best friends here so that has been awesome.

[Jesse Sampson] So, for me this is my first real job experience and I think it is a really, really good place to start.

It has taught me how to be professional.

♪♪ [Rep. Megan Jones] I think young people have an amazing role to play at the Capitol because they provide that energy, but also a good reminder of why we're here and that they matter too and that we need to remember why we're talking about Regent funding and why we're talking about our colleges and why we're talking about being career ready and why we're talking about making sure that we have, our young people have the skill sets that are needed in our environment and our economy.

♪♪ [Mariana Florez] To see all the legislators work together, even if they oppose each other, and what they believe is different.

They still are civil and they work together really well.

And something I'm going to remember of how to do that and how I can achieve to be like them.

♪♪ [Jesse Sampson] I love this building a lot.

It's pretty much my favorite building ever.

So, I love being here and being able to be here every day.

It's an amazing opportunity.

♪♪

♪♪ [Nebbe] Over the past two decades, the United States has lost over 3,000 newspapers, leaving nearly 55 million people without consistent local news coverage.

♪♪ ♪♪ [Nathan Countryman] As an editor of a small-town newspaper I'm wearing multiple hats.

I am person writing a majority of the stories that come in the newspaper.

♪♪ [Nathan Countryman] Circulation of our newspaper is roughly 3,000 I want to say.

People in these communities want to read about what is happening at their school boards, what is happening at their city councils, what is happening in their local schools.

It's important to highlight what is going well in your community.

It's important to highlight what needs improvement.

♪♪ [Nathan Countryman] Most of the comments I get in this community are, you seem to be everywhere in this community.

You seem to be at all these different events.

When do you ever sleep?

♪♪ [Nathan Countryman] Sure.

I would definitely entertain it.

It would be something I would be interested in reading.

♪♪ [Nebbe] Despite the challenges facing the journalism industry, the Daily Iowan, an independently run student newspaper at the University of Iowa saw an opportunity and purchased the Solon Economist and the Mount Vernon Lisbon Sun.

The deal is a win-win.

Students gain practical hands-on journalistic experience while the papers get help filling gaps in local news coverage.

Did we get photos for 80 hours?

[Jami Martin-Trainor] You can only do so much reporting and so much coverage when you're not allocated the proper resources.

The Daily Iowan is a learning lab, so you don't really go in having this deep repertoire of knowledge.

And so, when there is this support network and we're looking for people to get involved with these papers, it becomes a lot easier to broaden experiences and skills in a low stakes environment, but still getting published and actually reaching community members.

♪♪ Writing a profile story.

So, the first thing you want to do is do your research on a subject -- ♪♪ [Nebbe] Students in the School of Journalism take classes where they learn how to cover community news and high school sporting events.

♪♪ [Nebbe] With a little bit of editing, students earn bylines in the newspapers and some even have the opportunity to become interns.

♪♪ [Joel Kellar] I just spent the summer working with the Mount Vernon Lisbon Sun and the Solon Economist and I basically covered anything and everything that happened in those towns.

♪♪ [Joel Kellar] The best thing was they just kind of let me loose.

The first couple of weeks they were like, all right, let's just see what he comes back with.

So, that kind of forced me to be creative and tell stories in my own way and helped me find my voice.

♪♪ [Nathan Countryman] The first story I got back from Joel Kellar as an intern where he was covering the school board meeting is he had the nuts and bolts of the story, he had the things that were there.

He was just missing quotes from people that were talking at that meeting of hey, this is what actually gives this a little bit more flavor, a little bit more life.

(national anthem) (whistle blows) (crowd cheering) [Joel Kellar] You can't really learn it other than going out into the field and learning how to adapt.

(crowd cheering) [Emily Nyberg] Communities like Solon and smaller really tight knit communities, a lot of pride is placed in the people that come from those communities who are making an impact.

[Jami Martin-Trainor] People like to see themselves in the people that they're reading, which is why representation in journalism is so important and why community journalism is key to really show what is happening in these faces.

[Nathan Countryman] I think it goes back to helping build the community that you live in.

These are the faces you know.

These are the people that you encounter all the time.

It's important to show just the variety of reporting we can do in newspapers.

♪♪ [Nebbe] In the Daily Iowan documentary workshop, students take a deeper approach to storytelling.

Last year, they produced a story about a young Solon basketball player who became a Hawkeye.

That story ran in both the Daily Iowan and the Solon Economist.

[Emily Nyberg] Callie Levin is a women's basketball player from Solon, Iowa.

She currently plays for the Iowa women's basketball team.

I met Callie during the project that the Daily Iowan documentary workshop did on the Iowa women's basketball team.

[Jami Martin-Trainor] It's right in our back yard and with the acquisition of the Solon paper we sort of had conversations about how we wanted to give that some real estate in print for the Daily Iowan and the Solon Economist.

♪♪ [Emily Nyberg] Seeing the parts of community and life that we know happens but we don't often get to see is really crucial to understanding the people around us.

♪♪ [Jami Martin-Trainor] We're getting into people's lives with their consent and permission, making them feel comfortable enough to spend time with us and give us that access so that we can tell this full, well-rounded story.

[Nathan Countryman] It's something I'm excited about seeing as well.

What can we do with more students on the ground to help with our coverage?

[Joel Kellar] They want to put out good quality content.

They want to put out content that educates their communities.

People need this.

And I enjoy it, so I want to provide it to the people.

I want to educate the public as much as I can.

♪♪ [Jami Martin-Trainor] So, it has been great to have that support both from peers in the newsroom and our professional team to make sure that we're never settling for what could be a really good and well told story.

[Nathan Countryman] It helps me to have a reporter that I trust is reporting on those items.

[Emily Nyberg] When there's not the financial or personnel resources to do that, to have students and a student paper who are able to come in and provide that support so that those stories don't fall through the cracks and don't go unnoticed is really vital and it's something that I'm really honored to be able to be a part of.

♪♪