Manual Arts High School accommodates more than 2,500 students year round and is home to the oldest high school newspaper collection in Los Angeles. During the late summer of 2010 the Manual Arts High School Toiler Times newspaper began circulation again after a three year-long hiatus.

Thanks to a generous grant from the USC Good Neighbors Campaign the Toiler Times has partnered with Intersections: The South L.A. report, which is a program from the Department for Communication and Journalism at USC that brings USC students to serve as mentors and tutors to the journalism class at Manual Arts.

The wait to read another all-student produced newspaper was worth the wait indeed.

This is especially true for a young Toiler, Carla DeLeon, who spent December 4th, 2010 presenting her article in front of 120 audience members at USC as part of the Youth Media Los Angeles Collaborative. Her article titled, "G.L.B.T.I" discussed issues relating to teen suicides among gay, lesbians, and intersex students. This event was Carla's first time presenting in front of so many people, but, nonetheless, she did a wonderful job at presenting her article and answering any questions during the Q&A session. Carla was also able to network with attendees and other high school and college students who presented their journalistic pieces.

Carla's Intersection mentor and coordinator puts it better when it comes to seeing a young journalist blossom, "After returning to our normal mentoring schedule at MAHS, I noticed a change in her attitude. She definitely became more confident and emerged as a leader in her classroom, producing a lot of content under a very demanding deadline. She blossomed from a very shy girl, to a seasoned young journalist."

For one, I cannot wait to read another of Carla's articles for this new year as-well-as the articles from the rest of the Toiler Times newspaper staff.

If you would like to read the Toiler Times, please come by and visit Manual Arts High School or comment on this post and we will be glad to send you a copy.