Photographers Blog

Welcome to Revillo, South Dakota

Jim Young

Mar 9, 2012 11:58 EST

By Jim Young

“How does a trip to Revillo, South Dakota sound?” asked my editor. “Sure, ok?! And where is that exactly?”

I have been to quite a few places in my life, but I don’t think that is one of them.

It was for a story on 12 foreign exchange students, mostly from Asia and Europe who came to this town in the middle of America, population 152, to attend a school which is one building housing 140 students from kindergarten to grade 12.

My day started at 3am to head out for a flight to Minneapolis, followed by another 3 and a half hour drive to the town. First, never trust your GPS getting to Revillo. I made it the first 160 miles in good order but the last 10 miles put me on a makeshift gravel road with farm fields as far as the eyes could see in all directions. When recounting the story to the locals, they had a good laugh. They too were not even sure what “road” I was on.

I was curious as to how the students assimilated into the school and their life after hours. Not only did they have to cross barriers of language, culture and thousands of miles from home but also to adapt to a Midwestern winter climate and the isolation of small town America, where everybody knows everybody.

Chile’s dog days

Ivan Alvarado

Aug 15, 2011 11:23 EDT

By Ivan Alvarado

Today it seems the dictatorship ended only recently….

A newspaper front page shows a dog participating in the demonstrations in Chile. It seems that anything can happen these troubled days around the world, so between slogans and statements it makes sense to write a blog about street dogs and demonstrations.

“Free quality education.” – Student movement “Nothing is free in life.” – President Sebastian Pinera “Education should not be for profit.” – Student movement “Gang of useless subversives.” – Carlos Larrain, president of the ruling party “We don’t need mediators, and especially not from the Catholic Church.” – Camila Vallejo, student leader. “It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall….the education of Pinochet.” – Demonstrators. “Education is a commodity.” – President Pinera. “The government exaggerates the students’ claims to demonize them.” – Mario Waissbluth, expert on education. “The only thing they [the demonstrators] want to do is destroy the country and us.” – Chile’s National Police. “I’m a gardener and I want my son to be an engineer.” – Street graffiti.

With the camera on manual mode, shutter speed 1/1000, and my view limited by a gas mask, my 70-200mm lens changes focus with agility and it seems most often to lock on a dog running in and out of its view trying to capture a water jet aimed by riot police at hundreds of student protesters of diverse origin, all of them united under the conviction that a better education in Chile is possible.

School on Wheels

Lucy Nicholson

Mar 21, 2011 13:51 EDT

In a corner of Western Avenue Elementary School’s yard, a dozen children excitedly circle Charles Evans at the end of their day.

One child bounces a ball, another picks a handful of play slime out of a jar as the others chirp with enthusiasm.

While other children have gone home for the day, Evans rounds up this group who have no homes. He leads them down the street to South Los Angeles Learning Center, where he runs an after-school program for homeless children.

Almost 13,500 students out of around 680,000 in the LA Unified School District were homeless in the 2009-10 school year, a more than 50% increase from five years ago, due largely to unemployment and foreclosures.

The center run by School on Wheels used to open one day a week, but Evans now collects the kids daily after school for two hours, until their shelters open. The program got its name from the tutors who visit children such as Jayla weekly, in shelters, parks and libraries.

from AxisMundi Jerusalem:

Education for the blind

Yannis Behrakis

Nov 6, 2009 04:04 EST

Blind Palestinian children attend special schools in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza.

Oaksterdam University in place to teach next generation of pot entrepreneurs

Sam Mircovich

Jul 27, 2009 19:46 EDT

Reuters photographer Robert Galbraith spent some time at Oaksterdam University in Oakland,  California where they teach the next generation of medical marijuana entrepreneurs. The city of Oakland had just passed Measure F, which created a special tax category for medical weed dispensaries, the first in the nation. As state and local governments look for new revenue streams in the recession, medical marijuana is becoming an attractive stream for new tax revenue.

Listening to another news report that stated there are more medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles than Starbucks coffee shops, I thought it would be a good time to look at Oaksterdam University, a “school” that teaches students the finer points of marijuana law and cultivation techniques. The school sits on a busy street corner in downtown Oakland, California with several of its business entities found throughout the neighborhood. There is a book store to sell students books and supplies, as well as hats, t-shirts and smoking paraphernalia; a glass blowing shop across the street; and a medical marijuana dispensary around the corner.

In the one-room school, students listen to lectures and grow marijuana for homework. Three type of students attend Oaksterdam — those with the intention of eventually working  in the medical marijuana industry; those wanting to grow for their personal use, and others interested in the politics of pot and those who want to make it legal. Most of the students in the evening class are middle-aged medical marijuana patients eager to learn the trade and how to grow their own medicine.

Two blocks away, at Coffeehouse Blue Sky, customers come and go after picking up their medical marijuana in a neighborhood surrounded by a variety of other businesses. There is no cliché customer—younger and older, those dressed in shorts and t-shirts and others dressed in business attire coming in for an after-work prescription. Up front, customers enter and show their identification card from their doctor.  A small room in the back of the café serves as the distribution center. Those seeking medical marijuana line up at a small window, where they choose among a variety of cannabis strains and prices before handing over cash.

While many patrons of the dispensary did not want to be photographed, few of the students in the classroom seemed to mind. It was both a fascinating and educational experience, and a glimpse at something we might see a lot more of in the future, with various forms of government looking to tap into a plentiful resource.