By Hilarie Laukat
Everyone has a story to tell. Some of us just don?t know how or why to tell it.
Utah Valley students from kindergarten to seniors in high school are discovering one way of sharing their voices with the community thanks to the help of mentors from BYU?s Media Arts Department. This is the fourth year the department has been involved in a program called ?Hands on a Camera.?
?Hands on a Camera? is a service learning project that gives BYU film and media literacy students the opportunity to teach young people how to create documentaries about their community. Once a week, the students bring valuable skills and knowledge to Utah Valley schools with a focus on accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating media through expressive filmmaking techniques.
?The mentors are wonderful,? said Scott Willis, co-teacher of the Service Corps class at East Shore High, one of the local schools involved with BYU?s program. ?They are young so our students connect with them more, but they?re also experts. They can talk to the kids passionately about what they are doing.?
Before traveling to their assigned K-12 schools, mentors study for a semester with program coordinator Amy Petersen Jensen, a professor in the media arts department who coordinates graduate studies in media literacy and education. Jensen teaches mentors how to educate and direct these young people in a way that allows them to truly experience what they are learning about.
?The schools we?ve teamed up with embody lots of principles cohesive with experiential learning, which is one of the main purposes of the program,? Jensen said. ?Their goals match ours.?
This program serves Utah Valley students attending regular public schools and students attending alternative schools like East Shore. In every situation, those involved see this program as an empowering tool for young people across the valley.
?A lot of our students haven?t found a place in the regular public school system so it?s wonderful that this program shows them new ways to have a voice and pay attention to their communities,? said Amberly Phillips who teaches at East Shore.
Phillips said she has learned a lot about her students and their capabilities from the films they have produced. For a couple of hours every Friday afternoon, they have been meeting with their BYU mentors, who also say they have been impressed with the work these beginning filmmakers produce.
?It?s exciting to see what they come up with,? said Becca Potter, a film student who is currently serving as a mentor in Phillips? class. ?Amazing things can happen when people discover the power in telling their own story. ?
Those interested can visit www.handsonacamera.org which has information about the program and samples of past student films. This year?s participants will present their completed projects in May on BYU campus.
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