San Francisco - April 11, 2007

Eternal Sunshine of the 12-Year-Old Mind

Tech Tales Volunteer Program

We all need great mentors. Where would Aristotle be without Plato? Luke without Yoda? Jeffrey without Tim Gunn?

Here’s your chance to inspire eager students to make it work. Tech Tales, a division of the nonprofit program Streetside Stories, is a media arts and literacy program that helps middle schoolers create stories and short films about their lives.

Students in the program not only gain confidence, motivation, and enthusiasm, they also get more comfortable with technology and learn to cooperate with their peers. (If only they had an adult version.)

All you need is some experience with iMovie and general computer knowledge to help a seventh-grader write, storyboard, and edit a masterpiece. Interested? Streetside Stories hosts an introductory event each month.

Sure, helping kids learn to express themselves is reward in itself.

But a shout-out at the Oscars wouldn’t be bad either.

To volunteer, go to streetside.org.