On February 7, 2018, Youth Empowerment reporter Aryon Holley appeared on WNET Channel 13's public affairs program, MetroFocus, to talk about a news story she produced called the Plague of Sexual Assault. She is a part of an initiative by the Digital Media Training Program to train citizen journalists who report on people and issues of importance in their communities. Holley is a senior at New Explorers High School in the Bronx. Her report examines the high incidence of sexual assault among teenagers in her neighborhood. Holley also profiles dancer and choreographer Jinah Parker who created a performance called SHE, a choreopoem that explores the issues of gender violence. The Digital Media Training Program was founded in 2013 by broadcast journalist Melvin McCray to train underserved students in New York City in journalism and video production (see New Explorers High School).
New Explorers High School teacher Joann Mariani, MetroFocus host Jenna Flanagan, Youth Empowerment Reporter Aryon Holley, Dancer/choreographer Jinah Parker, and Digital Media Training Program Director Melvin McCray on the set of WNET's Ticsh Studio at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Digital Media Training Program Director Melvin McCray and Youth Empowerment Television reporter Nathalie Cabrera on the set of WNET Channel 13's public affairs show, MetroFocus.
On July 20, 2016 Melvin McCray, Director of the Digital Media Training Program, and student Nathalie Cabrera appeared on the public affairs program MetroFocus. The program airs weekly on WNET and WLIW, and the segment was hosted by Jack Ford. McCray has been teaching the after-school journalism program to high school students in Harlem for the past three years at My Image Studios, the Riverside Church and currently at the A. Phillip Randolph Campus High School. The program marked the beginning of a collaboration with WNET and the Digital Media Training Program to broadcast student news stories on the public television program. The initiative is called Youth Empowerment Television, a vehicle to teach broadcast journalism and get students to engage with their communities by working on stories that they are passionate about. Cabrera's story featured on the program focuses on the Nigerian girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group. She is one of several of McCray's students who worked on the project. MetroFocus aired the four and a half minute story and afterwards McCray and Cabrera discussed the story and the journalism program at the WNET Tish Studio at Lincoln Center.
Digital Media Training Program Director Melvin McCray, Youth Empowerment Television Reporter Nathalie Cabrera and the host of MetroFocus, Jack Ford.