To be eligible, applicants must be current juniors and seniors in and around the San Antonio region.
The newspaper offered a similar program in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and several participants went on to careers in the journalism and communications fields. Former Teen Team members include Madalyn Mendoza, journalist at MySA; Francisco Vara-Orta, director of Diversity and Inclusion at Investigative Reporters & Editors; and Bonnie Kavoussi, a former Huffington Post journalist.
Luz Moreno-Lozano, a journalist at the Austin American-Statesman, was part of the 2008 Teen Team and said the program was her “first foot in the door in launching my career as a journalist.” “Today, the skills I have learned have carried through to my daily reporting — from a community news reporter in Atascosa and Medina counties to covering the social injustices of Austin and its surrounding communities,” Moreno-Lozano said last year, after the program was relaunched. “And it all started with the Teen Team.”