Meet Our Interns
Hermes Falcon
Hermes Falcon (he/they) is a rising sophomore at Bradley University with a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing. In high school, Hermes wrote for his school newspaper, The Harbinger, at Miami Lakes Educational Center and was a copy editor from 2020 until he graduated. Hermes hopes to become a proper advocate for mental health, the LGBTQ+ community, and the Hispanic community through his writing.
Hermes joined YMG as a student reporter in the fall of 2020 during our first virtual workshop on surviving trauma. An intern with YMG since November of 2020, Hermes has been a “jack-of-all-trades,” helping in every area of the organization, from writing stories to assisting in all manner of administrative areas. YMG’s most prolific TikTok creator, Hermes has helped the organization's Sozosei-funded TikTok account grow with his creative and thoughtful videos. Hermes also builds and coordinates our YMG newsletter!
LINK TO WORK
Aliya Kaufman-Daniel
is a rising junior at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where she is pursuing a degree in Business Administration with concentrations in finance and international business and a minor in Asian studies.
At Youthcast Media Group, Aliya works with the operations team to analyze and organize student and alumni data. In the future, she hopes to work at an investment firm and work with global investment portfolios.
Aileen Delgado
is a freshman at the University of Central Florida and pursuing a B.A. in Human Communication with a focus on Interpersonal Communication. Throughout high school, she was a staff writer and copy editor for The Harbinger newspaper, a managing editor for the Alpha Omega yearbook, president and founder of her school's National English Honor Society, and a social media intern for PBS NewsHour's Extra. She is passionate about literature and creative writing. In April 2021, she won the "Arts for Life!" Award from the Florida-based Foundation for Excellence in Education in the creative writing category for one of her personal essays. As a young first-generation Cuban-American, Aileen is an advocate for accessible mental health and education resources for low-income immigrant communities. She plans to become a feature or editorial writer for an online publication, and to launch a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting homeless LGBTQ+ youth through support and local resources. At YMG, Aileen was an integral part of the content and programs and social media teams, writing pieces for our newsletters, and offering invaluable virtual support during our coverage of the Sozosei annual summit.
LINK TO WORK
Katelyn "Jimae" Hayes
is a 2022 graduate of Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. She majored in Communications and Media Studies with a minor in Studio Art. Jimae, a native of the D.C. area, has been a photographer since 2015, experimenting with a variety of media, such as video editing, graphic design and computer-generated imagery. Her art has appeared in the June 2021 fashion issue of Over Magazine Project: Full Bloom Vol. 32. Through her work, Jimae aims to tell stories about fashion, art, racial inequality and other global topics. Before coming to Youthcast Media Group, she gained marketing skills by managing social media accounts for different organizations, including the Baltimore Parks and People non-profit and the Goucher Women of Color Circle. Jimae helped with developing social engagement strategies, taking photos, covering a wide range of topics around mental health awareness, the LGBTQ+ community and more. She spends her free time with friends and family, who inspire a lot of her new work or are frequently the subject of it. Jimae's work: LINK TO WORK
Student Creators
Don McClain
They/Them
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
Kymani Hughes
She/Her
Syracuse University
Former Interns
Michelle Mairena
Michelle Mairena is a rising sophomore at Stanford University, where she is a prospective History and Earth Systems double-major interested in community advocacy and combating climate disinformation.
During the past two election cycles, she has worked in promoting civic literacy among youth as a National Fellow for the non-partisan “When We All Vote.” Most recently, Michelle served as regional organizer with “Rhizome,” a non-profit she co-founded focused on mobilizing high school youth into civic action. This follows work to organize for voting legislation under the non-partisan organization Un-PAC, where she handled Un-PAC Florida’s early social media presence to rally students for the Freedom to Vote Act.
Uplifting young voices is what has drawn Michelle, the granddaughter and daughter of Nicaraguan journalists, to use reporting to center community voices. She has participated in journalism workshops by the Poynter Institute, NAHJ, and YMG. During her time at YMG’s fall 2020 workshop, she wrote a feature story on the third year anniversary of Florida’s Parkland shooting and how Parkland students mobilized under March For Our Lives. In 2018 and 2019, she also received C-SPAN honorable mentions for documentary entries — one about freedom of speech and the other about immigration. For her work in centering youth, Michelle was awarded the Junior League of Miami Uppaluri four-year scholarship.
At Stanford, Michelle is a student worker at the Latinx community center “El Centro,” where she promotes Central American visibility on campus. She is also a tutor in Stanford’s Hope House Scholars Program, where she co-teaches humanities courses at a women’s rehabilitation center in Redwood City, California.
Michelle rejoined YMG in summer 2022 as a content and programs intern.
LINK TO Work