Knowledge Tree

1. Tell us about yourself in a brief autobiography of between 20 - 25 sentences. Where are you from? What do you most like to study? What are your passions and your dreams? Tell us a bit about your personality. Are you outgoing? A leader? Quiet and shy? An observer? What do you want us to know about you?

My name is Tessa Ormenyi. I live in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles. I am a junior at Cleveland High School and a student in the Humanities Magnet (Core). As a freshman, I was introduced to human rights abuses by studying various cultures in Core and, as a sophomore, I resolved to find a voice to move against these forces of degradation. Cleveland HS is fortunate enough to have a prestigious Media Academy where I learned to use film equipment and editing programs (Final Cut Pro). Film became a medium of expression that I found to have a deeper impact on its viewers. Last summer I was one of three U.S. youth delegates to travel to Belgrade, Serbia, for the 3rd International Media Youth Media Summit where 50+ youth convened from all over the world to make seven films on seven issues (Poverty, Women’s Rights, Youth Empowerment, Violence, Racism, Health, Environment). I wrote, directed, and edited the PSA on Women’s Rights (here). Prior to the trip to Serbia a friend of mine and I created a PSA on women’s rights titled I Will Use My Voice (here). Throughout high school I have been involved in the Teen International Media Exchange club on our campus. We raise money for organizations that promote youth filmmakers in other countries. Alongside my film making interests comes my calculus, physics, biology, chemistry, and econ classes. I have been fascinated with the physical sciences since elementary school and, in July of 2008, I interned at the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institute in D.C. I gained hands-on experience and independence. Upon returning to school after a tumultuous summer, the 11th grade Core program has become the air I breathe. The classes are based around raising social consciousness by learning about classism, racism, and sexism in American society as well as social movements and philosophies that combat the corporate, industrialized, racist, American manhood. I have resolved to commit my life to bring awareness to issues that so many people perpetuate, with or without their knowing.

2. Explore your relationship with media in five sentences by telling us about a favorite media experience you are having – a book you are reading, a video game you are playing, a movie you just saw, a magazine you subscribe to, a newspaper you read regularly, or a musician or band whose music you really like. What is it about this media experience that makes it powerful for you?

I think I answered some of this in the previous question. I try to broaden my sense of reality in an everyday attempt to be open-minded. Media is a growing, birthing, moving, functioning and mind-boggling thing in which I live and thrive. Here’s a list that influences and inspires me to make films and/or be vocal about injustice.

Tim Wise
bell hooks
Women Left for Dead - and the Man Who’s Saving Them by Eve Ensler
V-Day
Civil Disobedience by Thoreau
Ani Difranco
Brother (Watching) by Shad
Boys Don’t Cry
Start Propaganda
PostSecret

3. In five sentences, tell us about an issue you are concerned about in your home community. Why? What, if anything, have you tried to do about something you are concerned about, or what would you like to do if you could?

For my entire education I have been part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the 2nd largest school district in the nation, which controls just under 700,000 students. Surprisingly (!), drop-out rates are extremely high in a district that is going broke ($400 million has been cut this year), has encouraged limiting programs to help youth, is religious about mundane standardized testing, and has succeeded in making its teachers, students, and parents miserable. Cleveland HS has a dropout rate of 42%. Within the past school year I have become a youth ambassador for CATALYST, a California program based around the use of service learning. Recently, we have been dealing with the dropout problem and working to develop workshops for teachers on how to implement service learning (a resource statistically proven to keep kids in school) activities with limited funding, class time and resources. On February 9th we will be presenting these workshops at the Leadership Program in Anaheim. My response is a quote from Luis Rodriguez from the book Always Running that epitomizes the source of this problem, “If you came from the Hills, you were labeled from the start. I’d walk into the counselor’s office for whatever reason and looks of disdain greeted me - one meant for a criminal, alien, to be feared … It was a jacket I could try to take off, but they kept putting it back on.”


4. In five sentences, tell us what you can contribute to the group of participants during our DOTCOM program (face-to-face) workshops?

I hope to contribute my media experience in film making and editing. One lesson I learned the hard way is that what one envisions in a film and what one can actually film are two entirely separate things. The trick is to find a middle ground where metaphors can bring a viewer to your vision. The process of creation is far more important for a group than its product. The process is the therapy that brings cultures together therefore creating a meaningful message.