(Teens at six Clubs were given $10,000 to make their Clubs more high-tech. The members helped come up with ideas for how Clubs could better serve teens using technology. The Clubs with the best ideas won Teen Tech Innovation grants to make it happen. Here are some of their stories.)

 Above Zero Rising Higher

By Austin S., Above Zero Teen Captain,14, and Blayze O., Production Team Member, 13

LAS VEGAS -- Above Zero is a teen-produced and directed monthly webcast that highlights positive things in the community, helps teens make better choices, features urban youth culture, and even helps teens feel better about themselves.

Above Zero started when all of the teens from the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club came together and talked about how to make better role models for the teens in our community. The first step that we did over the summer, even before we got the grant, is we made our logo and talked about what our web site is going to look like. We also talked about how we are going to broadcast the webcast and what equipment we are going to use.

Second, we got the grant, and we were all very excited. But that’s when we had to get down to business. We have $10,000 to work with to buy camera equipment for the webcast and we also have to buy the web site.

Now that everything is running smoothly we had our first teem meeting. We recruited new teens, we discussed what we our going to cover in our Above Zero meetings. We also brain stormed about what is going to be in the webcast and web site. Now we are going to get the logo professionally done and we are going to schedule more Above Zero meetings!

This Grant Helps During Hard Economic Times

By Justin M.,15

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- I am so excited that the club is offering this technology program. I cannot wait until we begin to create projects for everyone to see. I believe this will help excite, unite and motivate teenagers from different backgrounds. During these hard economic times, I am glad that the Club is giving us an opportunity to forget all the negative stereotypes that teenagers always get and give us a change to look towards the positive.

We look forward to creating ideas that will help gain new friends as well as learn new job skills. I think by learning basic graphic design this will help teens like myself learn how to express their inner souls. We plan to offer the program once a week to help recruit other teens. After we learn how to use the different software we plan on going out to our local businesses to advertise our flyer and business card project at a much lower cost than our competitors.

Another aspect of the program is a credit recovery program. This will help teens that are credit deficient in school. Education is an important part of our lives and by the club offering this type of program it will help attract more teenagers to the club. And because technology and the club is a big part of teens lives this is a perfect match!

Helping students learn not to fall in their hard times is very important, remember the wise old quote: United we stand, divided we fall"!

Teen Tech Team Finds Project Not So Easy!

By Graciela R., 15

SALINAS, Calif. -- I think that the project is going to be both hard and easy. First of all, I think that it will be easy because we already know what we are planning to do and exactly how it can be a success. But it will be hard because we might need to think about what kind of parents we will get.

For example, we need to know such things as whether we need a translator, how many parents will participate and how to find something that will actually teach something to the parents! We also need to know how that will help the parents both now and in the future.

The things that we’ve been learning lately in the Teen Tech Team have been fun and educational because I got to learn things that I didn’t know about technology. I get to learn new things about technology and how it works. Second, I get to learn how to fix the technology --looking at the inside of a technical project can help you learn how it operates and how it is built.

Team Learns By Breaking Things!

By Steven V., 14

SALINAS, Calif. -- Breaking down and seeing what is inside of things and spending lots of time on the projects is the way I have learned so I think we should have a somewhat of a hands-on class!

So far I've learned how to use Microsoft Word and its mail merge feature and how to make graphs in different ways. I don’t think I know everything but do know that am pretty knowledgeable when I comes to technology and especially because I haven’t been taught through a special book or anything, I had to learn most of what I know by just trying, using tools and apps and messing with things.

 Team Has Game Up and Running!

By Alex A. (14), Allison W. (14), Echo T. (15), and Jake W. (14)

RENO, Nev. -- KODU is up and running and is a really fun game. We really enjoy being able to design our own playing field and program the characters as we see fit. We love the wide range and variety for the options that go into creating our own virtual world. We also really enjoy being able to play and see our characters in motion.

We have noticed a few things that need to change. First off, we need to have more of a storyline so that there’s something to base our worlds on and so that we have a goal. Also, we definitely need to have set rules. That way, we would have had less arguing and less time between testing the characters.

Some of us would also enjoy if there were human characters. We also have ideas to program KODU so you can use a single player to have characters already programmed so that you can interact with them. We are working on these issues and are currently implementing solutions.

Overall, KODU is an exciting and creative game that lets us think outside of the box. We have always wondered what it would be like to build our own virtual world, so this is a good insight into that world. With a few adjustments, this could be a top game, and get people of all ages into a more creative thinking mode! Hopefully, that will bring more teens into our Club!

Go Green (Michigan St. and Technology)!

By Chandler, 13

LANSING, Mich. -- The members of the GET City Teen Tech Style Program at the Boys & Girls Club of Lansing were really glad that we got picked for our GET City (green energy technology program) project. We are also excited that we learn more about environmental justice!

I have been participating in GET City since it started three years ago. When we were helping to put our project on paper for the grant, we thought it might not sound that exciting even though we knew it was going to be really great! We started by setting some goals for ourselves, like getting more teens signed up and getting our main group to make sure that everybody attends all the sessions.

It’s not that easy because some of us are in activities after school like sports and band. We are going to keep changing our GET City Teen Tech Style meetings until we get the most people who can participate. We might even break into teams if we have to.

Dr. Angie and Mark have been really great -- they both come from Michigan State University and help us to stay focused. We have mainly been talking about environmental justice and working on the design of our Wiki for right now.

Grant Helps Teens Learn the Power of Music

By Manuel F.

PASCO, Wash. --  We just recently were blessed with recording studio equipment and Wow! What can I say other than we are speechless. The kids and the staff are EXCITED. 

Our director Lynn informed us about five iMacs, studio mixers, microphones and a few other things we were able to purchase with the grant. My jaw dropped and well my friend Memo fainted, but he is OK! We are so thankful for this opportunity.  Maybe we can spark a little inspiration to bring out the good music in the real world.

Here in the Tri-Cities there are plenty of students using sound recorder on their computers and producing their own music but with this we will give them education in music and expand their minds more than the Boys & Girls Club already has.

If there is anything that the Boys & Girls Club has taught me it is these three words; peace, love and respect.  As an older member of the Boys & Girls Club, I will help the kids to release the way they feel on paper and make them realize music is just not a bunch of words written down but that it is a state of mind. We are very thankful and again SUPER EXCITED for the grant.  Thank you for everyone involved who made this possible. Peace, love and respect from all the teens at the Bobbie Littrell Teen Center!