- check out select projects below -
A ConstructiveSpace (visit site). This project is a different approach to the popular social networking site, Myspace. Using a normal MySpace page, that youth can add as a “friend”, I hope this page and its variety of contents can be a positive resource easily accessible for youth who otherwise normally only visit MySpace for social networking. (Sarita)
A Look at Mean Girls and Not Another Teen Movie: Harboring Racial Undertones and Presenting Racial Stereotypes (TRT 10:30). Through interviews with Stanford University undergraduate students, this short documentary film explores the racial undertones and stereotypical racial portrayals in two mainstream films – Mean Girls and Not Another Teen Movie. It offers a glimpse as to how these ideas translate into real world interactions, particularly in the high school setting. (Alison)
A Woman Like Me. This short video explores both the ways Black women are portrayed in High School films and the way they perceive these portrayals and their implications. Responses from current Black female high school students, teachers, and administrators juxtaposed with photos from high school films provide a theatrical landscape of common discourses and implications surrounding Black women and high schools, while at the same time allowing Black women to redefine their roles for themselves. This simple video is an attempt to highlight the power new media has to provide people with the agency to reject undesired portrayals and classify one’s own self. (Ryann)
Act Out: A Theater Resource for Underresourced High Schools (visit site).This online resource is for teachers trying to introduce drama programs into low income or especially diverse schools, where they may face limited resources or students who don’t feel like plays are written for “people like them.” The purpose of this website is twofold: (1) Broaden teachers’ knowledge of lesser-known works, and provide suggestions for adapting canonized works like Shakespeare or The Sound of Music to meet the specific needs of their students; (2) Set up a forum through which teachers can share their experiences or offer advice for doing particular shows at their school. Hopefully by making theater more accessible to high schoolers today, students will gain new ways to explore their identities at school. (Rachel)
Choice and Change: My Summer as an Urban High School Film Cliché (TRT 10:30). This brief audio essay discusses my summer as a teaching assistant for a class of students from East Palo Alto. In discussing my experience, I analyze the themes of progress and change in two urban school films, Dangerous Minds and Half Nelson. (Dan)
Exploring a Raced World that Races Words | An Experiment (visit site). This website is an experiment that attempts to give visitors a glimpse into the quirky, bizarre, and fascinating world of competitive high school and college policy debate. An activity in which students spew out 400 words-per-minute and annually produce research “equivalent of the work put into a masters thesis,” there has been also a lot of talk of its shortcomings in inclusiveness and diversity. Log on to be part of the collage of voices, observations, and representations of the of race, access, and inclusiveness in competitive debate. (Henry)
High School Reality: Race & Education. The project aims to challenge the portrayals of youth in high school seen in popular media. Through the use of real stories, the project seeks to show a diverse experience of race in high school that no film could ever encompass. (Michael)
Identify Yourself (visit site). As either Americans or immigrants we form part of a large community of different races and cultures. Identify Yourself serves as a forum to talk about that journey we all go through in efforts to define our roots and how we fit into this country as both individuals and members of sub-groups. (Ikira)
Who Am I? Who Are You? (visit site) Four years of college a cappella and a love for Russell Simmons Presents: Def Poetry has lead creating this website in which we examine adolescent development through performance. We view the beauty that comes from the ability to jam wisdom and life experience into 16 bars, or 16 lines, and take the stage to literally and metaphorically release 16 years of personal experience onto a a sea of familiar…yet unfamiliar faces. (Jarreau)
“Just Regular Kids” A look into the lives of East Palo Alto students (TRT 5:00). In this documentary I attempted to break down the stereotypes of students in East Palo Alto as portrayed in the film “Dangerous Minds.” I filmed Stanford students working with students of East Palo Alto at all levels- Ravenswood Reads (a literacy program for elementary students), EPASA (mentoring/tutoring of middle school students) and Upward Bound (mentoring/tutoring of high school students). My hope is that this documentary will shed new light on East Palo Alto students through the lens that these programs are merely an aid to students who are capable and driven in their own right. (Jessie)
Media’s Model Teacher: Implications and Consequences of the Teacher-Hero in Films (TRT 8:40). In this documentary I explore the images that films promote about teachers and how this creates false hope and expectations for our struggling urban educators. I examine the ways that films inspire people to be teachers but how this inspiration is blinded by Hollywood’s portrayal of what actually goes on in a classroom. (Stany)
“People Like Me:” A Look into the Asian American Activities Center. An integral part of student life at Stanford, a school “prized” for its “commitment to diversity,” are our four ethnic community centers that provide a source of culturally competent or “same-race” support for students. This case study of the Asian American Activities Center explores questions of community, identity formation, and representation by highlighting the experiences of students and staff with the A3C. (Diana)
Perspectives of Diversity at Campbell Hall High School. While most media discussion on race relations has focused primarily on urban high schools, similar issues are often overlooked in more suburban school settings. This video project explores Campbell Hall High School—an independent private school in North Hollywood, California—and the ways in which race and diversity issues are addressed on campus by students, teachers, and administrators. (Edwin)
Possible Selves, Possible Futures: Media Representations of Teenage Girls in Disadvantaged Situations (visit site). This website explores how media representations affect the way young people imagine themselves in the future. I compare film portrayals of teenage girls in the movies Thirteen and Real Women Have Curves and explain the various messages being sent to teenagers through film. (Jessica)
Shadows in Clean Hallways (TRT 3:58). Can someone be proud to identify with their roots when they are mere shadows in a school inhabited by predominantly white and preppy students? This documentary attempts to explore the thoughts and feelings generated by a different, cultural schooling environment for minority students and how these feelings can be key influencers in their behavior, lifestyle choices, and decisions. Through images, this documentary tries to capture at least a glimpse of what this situation can feel like for specific minority students. (Karen)
“So, do YOU plan on going to College?” This short documentary attempts to explore how a large suburban high school copes to deal with a large demographic change and how it encourages all students to attend college, not simply earn a high school diploma. (Jessica)
The International School of Amsterdam: Forging Identities Far Removed from the U.S Racial Landscape (TRT 4:20). This short documentary explores the role of racial and ethnic identities at the International School of Amsterdam, as experienced by former high school students. It asks the viewer to question how their words relate to the American high school experience, and what the differences can teach us. (Esther)
The Moments of a Young Man (TRT 6:10). This documentary is about my younger brother’s schooling experience going from the black side of Huntsville, Alabama, to the white side. (Yaa)
