Youth Innovation Studio
Youth Innovation Studio
  • Home
  • Our Team and Mission
  • 6-Week Filmmaking Program
  • Do Good Club
  • Storytelling Competition
  • Where We Work
  • More
    • Home
    • Our Team and Mission
    • 6-Week Filmmaking Program
    • Do Good Club
    • Storytelling Competition
    • Where We Work
  • Home
  • Our Team and Mission
  • 6-Week Filmmaking Program
  • Do Good Club
  • Storytelling Competition
  • Where We Work

Who We Are

Man in a suit smiling near a stone wall.

Jeffrey Aresty, Founder and President

Jeffrey Aresty, Founder and President

Jeffrey Aresty, Founder and President

 Jeff Aresty founded InternetBar.org Institute, the nonprofit behind Youth Innovation Studio, built on his belief that technology can expand access — to justice, to opportunity, to understanding — for a more peaceful and fairer society. He leads PeaceTones, creating income opportunities in conflict zones, and The Invisibles, addressing id

 Jeff Aresty founded InternetBar.org Institute, the nonprofit behind Youth Innovation Studio, built on his belief that technology can expand access — to justice, to opportunity, to understanding — for a more peaceful and fairer society. He leads PeaceTones, creating income opportunities in conflict zones, and The Invisibles, addressing identity barriers facing stateless refugees. A Fellow at UMass's Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution, he has spent decades using technology to bridge divides, the same principle guiding YIS's work with the next generation of storytellers 

Woman smiling with a goat nuzzling her shoulder.

Yvonne Nath, Executive Director

Jeffrey Aresty, Founder and President

Jeffrey Aresty, Founder and President

Yvonne has spent her career in the legal industry — first at for-profit firms, now leading non-profit work on access to justice: making the legal system work for everyone, not just those who can afford it. That access starts earlier than most assume. Before someone can walk into a courtroom, or simply take part fully in their community an

Yvonne has spent her career in the legal industry — first at for-profit firms, now leading non-profit work on access to justice: making the legal system work for everyone, not just those who can afford it. That access starts earlier than most assume. Before someone can walk into a courtroom, or simply take part fully in their community and economy, they need a fair shot at education, mentorship, and stability growing up. That's why our work centers on youth.

Access to justice also means being heard — a voice that goes unheard is harder to appreciate and advocate for. That's why storytelling is core to our programming: younger generations deserve to be heard.

Our Guest Experts

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

 Sergio's background is in back-end and front-end application development for Fortune 500 companies. In 2017, he co-founded the Longmont Observer to bring local news to Longmont — now Longmont Public Media, a professional multi-media production studio where everyday community members produce and share civic and artistic media. Longmont Pu

 Sergio's background is in back-end and front-end application development for Fortune 500 companies. In 2017, he co-founded the Longmont Observer to bring local news to Longmont — now Longmont Public Media, a professional multi-media production studio where everyday community members produce and share civic and artistic media. Longmont Public Media and Youth Innovation Studio share a mission: building an informed, engaged community through media.  See: Longmont Public Media – Longmont's Public Access TV 

Mackenzie Shelswell-White, Visual Media Specialist

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

 "Mack" helps our students navigate the ethical and technical elements of digital storytelling. As a recent graduate from the CU Boulder journalism program, she can easily remember what it's like to be a teen wondering what path the future may take. She is passionate about journalism and visual storytelling and dreams of working as part o

 "Mack" helps our students navigate the ethical and technical elements of digital storytelling. As a recent graduate from the CU Boulder journalism program, she can easily remember what it's like to be a teen wondering what path the future may take. She is passionate about journalism and visual storytelling and dreams of working as part of a news team one day. See her portfolio here:  Mack On The Ground 

Guest Experts

Sergio R. Angeles, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Longmont Public Media

Guest Experts

 Our programs rely heavily on guest experts sharing their knowledge with our students — adventure filmmakers, journalists, audio engineers, professors, film crew, and more, drawn from the local communities where our programs take place. 

OUR MISSION

 The mission of our parent 501(c)(3), InternetBar.org Institute, is to use technology to advance access to justice. Access to justice requires access to opportunity, and access to opportunity requires trust — the kind built through relationships, not credentials alone. That trust isn't extended equally: less visible, less privileged youth are far less likely to receive it than their more privileged peers. How many teens lack a family member who can hand them a paid job to build a résumé? How many lack a community that can introduce them to a mentor — or to people with the means to carry them into adulthood?


Youth Innovation Studio, our program geared toward teens, exists to close that gap. It teaches media literacy to youth who've experienced barriers to opportunity: the ability to tell real reporting from fabrication, and to research and tell a factual, non-polarized story through digital media. Alongside that, it teaches vocational skills — using multimedia production tools and equipment, thinking critically, speaking with industry experts, communicating professionally, and building good work habits — and provides students with experiences that can improve their work prospects and change the trajectory of their lives.


The program is deliberately built to do two things at once: 1) close the opportunity gap for young people usually left out of the networks that vouch for people, and 2) strengthen the broader public's ability to tell trustworthy information from noise. We are building more trusting communities and opportunities for the next generation.

Copyright © 2026 Youth Innovation Studio - All Rights Reserved.

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