School children find peace, balance in Kundalini Yoga practice

A yoga practice referred to as “the yoga of awareness” is helping students be more present, confident and peaceful, said the director of an El Paso Montessori school. “Kundalini Yoga for us has been a tremendous opportunity for students to connect even deeper within, to really understand that they are inside and really make a connection with their body and mind,” said Natalia Bennett, director of Mountain West Montessori School. She said some of the benefits students have experienced from Kundalini Yoga practice at Mountain West Montessori include thinking more clearly, being more aware of their surroundings and being at peace within themselves and the people around them. Kundalini Yoga is one of the older yogas and is very comprehensive including meditation, breath work, and mudras with hand positions, mantras, chanting, and singing. “Yoga means to unite, to merge body, mind and spirit, and Kundalini Yoga does that, it connects us to our inner wisdom, our consciousness our inner strength,” said Paramdayal Kaur, a certified Kundalini Yoga and Meditation teacher in El Paso.

In a unique living arrangement, diverse artists work together to create a new kind of community in El Paso

Put a bunch of artists together in one creative space and what do you get? Less than a year after opening in Downtown El Paso the Roderick Artspace Lofts  is beginning to answer that question as all 51 local units have been filled up with a diverse group of artists who are getting to know each other and planting the roots of a vibrant arts community. “Real bonds are forming and real collaboration is happening between the Roderick residents, a group of people who are dedicated to the pursuit of making beauty and expressing themselves in creative ways,” said Eric Pearson, President and CEO of the El Paso Community Foundation. Artspace opened in January of 2017 in partnership with the El Paso Community Foundation and the City of El Paso, with the goal of  turning what was a vacant lot at the corner of Oregon and Missouri in Downtown El Paso into “an arts destination animated by artists and creative businesses.” “I hope that the community they are building is going to look outward beyond the walls of the Roderick Lofts and take it out to the streets.” Pearson said.

Borderzine now accepting applications for Journalism in July 2017, a summer multimedia workshop for high school students

Borderzine is accepting applications from El Paso area high school juniors and seniors for full scholarships to attend the 15th annual Journalism in July (JIJ) workshop at the University of Texas at El Paso. The dates are July 9 – 16. Fill out the application form here. Over the last 14 years, the workshop has provided journalism training to more than 200 students from high schools in the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez–Las Cruces area.  A goal of the workshop is to encourage high school students of diverse backgrounds who are already interested in journalism to pursue future studies and careers in news media and communication. “Journalism in July encouraged me to pursue a career in journalism,” said Gloria Heredia, 2012 alumna of the program and current multimedia journalism student at the University of Texas at El Paso.

El Paso Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy 2016 participants selected

Sixteen journalism instructors from Hispanic Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been selected to participate in the seventh annual Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Training Academy in late May at the University of Texas in El Paso.  Thanks to a grant provided by the Dow Jones News Fund, Borderzine organizes this seventh annual workshop training geared to multimedia journalism instructors who teach in institutions with a large minority population.  Here is a list of the 16 chosen instructors and their institutions:
Eilene Wollslager, Our Lady of the Lake Texas
Sissel McCarthy, Hunter College
Myna German, Delaware State University
Cleo Allen, Dillard University
Stacey Patton, Morgan State University
Karima Haynes, Bowie State University
Benjamin Davis, California State University Northridge
Alice Stephens, Clark-Atlanta University
Gwyneth Doland, University of New Mexico
Michael DiBari, Hampton University
Bonnie Stewart, California State University Fullerton
Sheryl Kennedy Haydel, Xavier University of Louisiana
Stu VanAirsdale, Sacramento State University
Jenny Moore, Texas A&M San Antonio
Indira Somani, Howard University
Hugo Perez, New Mexico State University
This intense multimedia-journalism academy has a proven track record of six successful years helping journalism educators acquire a new skill set in multimedia production. “The trainers at the academy understand what educators need to learn about new and emerging technologies to better prepare their students for the fast-changing future” said Linda Shockley, Managing Director of Dow Jones News Fund. “This quality of instruction at absolutely no cost to participants and their universities is priceless.”
The goal of this experience is to learn and practice new storytelling skills through the use of current technology.

Borderzine announces selected participants for fifth Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy

 

EL PASO — Twelve journalism instructors have been selected to participate in the fifth annual Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy in early June at the University of Texas in El Paso. Thanks to a grant provided by the Dow Jones News Fund, Borderzine organizes this fifth annual workshop training geared to multimedia journalism instructors who teach in institutions with a large Hispanic population. The chosen instructors come from seven states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico:

Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, University of Arizona
Christopher Temple Northup, University of Houston
Jay Seidel, Fullerton College
Joe Hale Cutbirth, Manhathan College
Kirstie Elizabeth Hettinga, California Lutheran University
Laura Lynn Camden, Northern Arizona University
Michael Vincent Marcotte, University of New Mexico
Michele D. Mohr, Morton College
Richard Eugene Brunson, University of Central Florida
Susannah Nesmith, Barry University
Tsitsi D. Wakhisi, University of Miami
Yadira Nieves-Pizarro, Inter American University

This intense multimedia-journalism academy has a proven track record of four successful years helping journalism educators acquire a new skill set in multimedia production. “The trainers at the academy understand what educators need to learn about new and emerging technologies to better prepare their students for the fast-changing future” said Linda Shockley, Deputy Director of Dow Jones News Fund. “This quality of instruction at absolutely no cost to participants and their universities is priceless.”

The goal of this experience is to learn and practice new storytelling skills through the use of current technology.

Borderzine.com invites El Paso area community members to participate in a focus group for the redesign of Borderzine’s website

EL PASO – Borderzine.com will conduct a series of focus groups interviews in order to generate information that will support the redesign of the organization’s website with the purpose of better serving the needs of its readers. Borderzine is inviting members of the El Paso community to participate in this focus group interview which is being scheduled to take place at The University of Texas at El Paso on Monday, November 25 in Cotton Memorial building Room 306 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Borderzine subscribers who are familiar with the organization’s current website are encouraged to participate. The objective of the focus group will be to obtain direct insights from loyal Borderzine readers; tapping into their own experiences to better serve their needs. Specific goals for the focus group are:
1. Identify design and usability strengths and weaknesses.

boy at border fence

Borderzine is accepting applications from professional and independent journalists for its first Specialized Reporting Institute on Immigration Reform

EL PASO – As Congress debates passing immigration reform this year, this reporting workshop on covering immigration reform will teach journalists how to report the face of immigration in their communities using technology and data gathering tools and the latest research findings on immigration. Borderzine, Reporting Across Fronteras, invites professional and independent journalists in the United States to apply to its first McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute (SRI) on Immigration Reform: Immigration from the Border to the Heartland. Fifteen journalists will be selected for this intense three-day training to be held September 26-29, at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The institute will convene on Thursday evening, September 26, with a welcoming ceremony, and the three-day workshop will begin early on Friday morning, and conclude at noon Sunday, September 29. The Robert R. McCormick Foundation furnishes everything from tuition to housing, food and transportation.

2012 Journalism in July visit Univision 26. (©Borderzine.com)

Journalism in July 2013 is now accepting applications from high school students

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: APRIL 15, 2013

To all El Paso area high school journalism/media student advisors:

We invite you to nominate your top journalism students for “Journalism in July” at the UTEP campus from July 7-14. Journalism in July recruits 20 students from high schools in the El Paso area to train them in the basics of journalism and how to use digital tools to tell stories on the web. During the 7-day residential workshop, student journalists stay in the UTEP campus dormitories. UTEP faculty and volunteer media professionals teach news reporting and writing as well as video, audio and photography practices. They visit print and broadcast media outlets, and ultimately produce a bilingual, multimedia student web magazine filled with news and enterprise stories and featuring digital photography and video.