Final ceremony - Youth Correspondents Program

The Youth Correspondents Program final ceremony will take place tomorrow in the morning. The 18 young journalists who have taken part in this program and staff from the United States Embassy will gather at Ambassadors Reynoso's official residence, in Montevideo, to celebrate this successful project. They will also find out who are the four correspondents who will travel to the United States in September to keep on learning.

You can follow the live webcast of the event through this link https://conx.adobeconnect.com/uruguay

At the beginning of the program. Photo: United States Embassy

Third Seminar of Youth Correspondents

The third encounter for the Youth Correspondents of the US Embassy in Uruguay was held during the 5th and 6th of December in Montevideo. This time the group of young journalists had the unique opportunity to meet Hannah Rosenthal (Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-semitism) and William Owen (Counselor for Political, Economic and Commercial Affairs); as well as very important Uruguayan politicians, such as Julio María Sanguinetti (former president), Luis Alberto Lacalle (former president and current senator) and Vice President Danilo Astori.

Courtesy of United States Embassy in Montevideo

Celebrate Human Rights... and defend them!

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created exactly 63 years ago, and that's why we are celebrating, like each 10th of December, the International Human Rights Day.

This fact by itself, doesn’t say much, unless we are honestly committed to leave aside all our prejudices, and to work as much as we can to ensure that any human being, however different or distant they may be from ourselves, is able to enjoy those rights.

The  following video is an incredibly inspiring presentation by Hannah Rosenthal, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, given during the most recent Seminar of Youth Correspondents.

Youth Correspondents

Information about Youth Correspondents, the programme tha makes all this possible, taken from U.S. Embassy in Montevideo's Youtube channel.

On World Press Freedom Day 2011, former Ambassador David Nelson announced the creation of a new program aimed at encouraging young people to participate in the process of promoting and protecting the freedom of expression by helping them develop skills and networks in the field of journalism.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and in partnership with various Uruguayan press organizations, the U.S. Embassy Montevideo officially launched on June 10, 2011 its Youth Correspondents Program, a pilot project designed to engage young people in a career-oriented activity that gives them a voice in their communities.
Under the program, 18 senior high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 from each of the 18 departments in the country's interior, were selected to work as correspondents for the embassy's Press Office. Each candidate receives equipment and orientation training by prominent Uruguayan and U.S. journalists.
The young correspondents will be required to report on relevant news and activities taking place in each of the communities they represent, and publish their articles, photos and videos directly to their own Youth Correspondents blog. Throughout the duration of the program, the correspondents will receive ongoing hands-on mentoring by volunteer professionals.
This video covers the participants´ first 2 months of activities, including 2 training seminars, the first in Montevideo conducted by a panel of renowned Uruguayan journalists and media specialists, and the second in Nueva Helvecia conducted by VOA´s Multimedia Managing Director Iscar Blanco.
At the end of their one year assignment, a panel of professional journalists will select the best two candidates who will then travel to Washington, DC to participate in a one-week comprehensive media and journalism visit specially designed by the embassy's Press Office.

Telematch

Telematch is a competition organized by High School Number 1 in order to celebrate the arrival of spring. The custom of celebrating this season with different kinds of festivals has become popular among several institutions in Colonia.

UNESCO International Model

At this moment 7 highschool students from Colonia del Sacramento are boarding the ship that will take them to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to take part in the XII edition of the UNESCO Model at José Hernández Institute.

This will certainly be a unique learning experience for all of them, as they will be involved in formal discussions and diplomatic negociations, in an enviroment that is completely different from what they see everyday.

The event will be held from the 5th to the 8th of october and consists of several debates in which each delegation represents a country (in this case, Vietnam) assuming its position regarding different topics, such as freedom, women's rights, protection of cultural items, etc.

What makes it even more interesting is the opportunity to get in contact with people from all over the world. Students from Italy, Paraguay, Singapore, Slovakia, Uruguay and Argentina have been "diplomatics" at this Model.

Pictures taken from José Hernández Institute's website

One detail that should be remarked is that these seven students attend a public highschool (which is quite unusual at this activity), and have worked really hard to prepare all the information that they need, while at the same time raising the money for the tickets and other expenditures.

We would like like to congratulate them, and wish them good luck.