About Us
A Backpack Journalist ™ helps military youth find their “VOICE” – COMING IN 2012 – Journaling/writing for the adult learner!
Building Resiliency through Creative Expression!
A Backpack Journalist, LLC is an educational services and event support company. Our program office is in Atlanta, Georgia, and our Digital Media: Irving, Texas. We provide curriculum, workshops and events for Military Youth 6-11 and 12-18 to assist them through the deployment cycle, including reintegration. We have recently added Journaling for adults (FRG’s or the Survivorship Audience).
We teach how to “write” to express you, journalistic reporting, broadcast and scripting. We teach photography to include portraits and environmental (Digital Storytelling). We focus on teaching how to tell the story via a photograph: photojournalism. We teach song writing and Cowboy Poetry, with each of these containing modules to support building lyrics and poems and then either to song or to recital. Our newest addition is Film Making and we have partnered with Nashville Film Institute!
Our A Backpack Journalist Curriculum is available as an app for the Apple iPad and soon Android tablets.
Curriculum Contents include: Basic Writing, Narrative Writing, Photojournalism, Songwriting, Broadcast Journalism, Cowboy Poetry, Film Making and Little Backpackers (activities for ages 8-11)
A Backpack Journalist curriculum and training on various media is in an open classroom setting and mobile lab, and allows youth to express themselves and help connect with their parents/family/other youth.
Our curriculum support events for Child and Youth Programs, Yellow Ribbon Program, YLEAD weekends and CAMPS, weekend retreats that support Military Youth and FRG Volunteer Symposiums.
2012 – Veteran’s Retreat – Workshop
A Backpack Journalist has expanded to include a 2-day weekend retreat that provides writing, song writing, film making and photography (digital storytelling) for Veterans returning from service with an “invisible wound”, often referred to as PTSD. The A Backpack Journalist Veteran’s Retreat-Workshop is conducted in a safe environment offering up writing/journaling either put to paper, to song or accompanying a digital photo story. The weekend closes with each attendee sharing, then experiencing digital photography through portraits taken of each other, by each other.
Staff and Intern Program
A Backpack Journalist, LLC has a staff of nationally recognized teachers who have years of experience in their subject matter, love of working with youth in the teen cycle, and for the military youth demographic, appreciate the value and sacrifices that they have faced via deployments and the reintegration process.
A Backpack Journalist, LLC has a national INTERN PROGRAM consisting of youth who have taken the course, graduated and wish to assist our teachers in a continued learning environment.
“Real World Experiences”
Our goal is to also offer “REAL WORLD” experiences for youth who attend our program and workshops:
A Backpack Journalist has supported the following national “REAL WORLD” events:
- NGB Youth Symposium (New Orleans – 2010)
- NGAUS (Austin, Texas – 2010)
- CNN/HLN January 2011
- NGB Volunteer Symposium & USO HOMEFRONT EVENT
- AUSA (Washington, DC 2011)
Clients include: US Army Reserves, Child & Youth & School Servies (Crystal City, Virginia), Texas Military Forces Yellow Ribbon Program (Camp Mabry, Texas), National Guard Bureau Joint Family Programs –Youth Symposium, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana (Washington, DC). National Guard of United States (NGAUS) and National Guard Association of Texas (NGAT) – Austin, Texas 2010 and AUSA – Washington, DC October 2011.
Please see calendar for further bookings and events.
A Backpack Journalist also supports volunteer and staff training, providing “pay it forward or force multiply” and customized curriculum.
National Guard of Texas Military Family Support Foundation
provided financial support for the pilot test for which we are grateful.
AUSA – Association of the United States Army
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
2012 A Backpack Journalist, LLC.
RICK KIERNAN – Alexandria, Virginia
Mr. Rick Kiernan was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended The Virginia Military Institute where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and a Commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. Kiernan served twenty-six years as an Infantry officer, retiring as a full Colonel in 1993. During his military career he served in Germany, Vietnam, Alaska, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia .In 1991, he led the last military delegation to the former Soviet Union to assist that nation in its Public Affairs and Media Relations programs. Colonel Kiernan is a Paratrooper who received two Bronze Stars in combat, three awards of the Legion of Merit for achievement and numerous commendations for service from the U.S. government as well as the Republic of South Vietnam, Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As a Public Affairs Officer, he has been the Managing Editor of three Newspapers, Host of a Public Television show, Editor-in-Chief of a monthly Magazine and Chief Pentagon Spokesman for the U. S. Army during Operation Just Cause in Panama and the Gulf War.
Upon his military retirement in 1993, Mr. Kiernan was selected to be the Director of both Press Operations and Public Information for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He established the Main Press Center for 5,000 journalists from 197 countries who spoke 44 languages. In 1996,Kiernan began his work in Corporate Communications and for 15 years, he served as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications for L-3 Services Group and MPRI, a global training corporation. In this role he was responsible for Marketing and Corporate Communications supporting Public Affairs programs in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa.
Mr. Kiernan received a Masters Degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina, where he was selected as Distinguished Alumnus in 2005, and has completed Post Graduate study at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
COL (RET) James Scott – Pangburn, Arkansas
Betty Tarnowski – Folly Beach, South Carolina
Program Manager: Linda Dennis
Ldennis@abackpackjournalist.com
Address:
Program Office
2484 Briarcliff Road, #22 116
Atlanta, GA 30329
404 314 8007
Digital Media Office
1805 Oakhurst Drive
Irving, Texas 75061
A Backpack Journalist Foundation
Atlanta, Georgia, 30329
Established: March, 2011
Non-profit application in process: 501 C3
For information: ldennis@abackpackjournalist.com
Central Contractor Registration (CCR) CAGE – 5X3K5