click to watch some of the students' video projects.
Some of the kids involved in the program...
Joshua Studyviant is a sixteen year old student at Gentilly High School, who was born and raised in New Orleans. Friendly, yet analytical, he enjoys conversing with new people and learning from every new experience and person that he comes across. He aspires to study engineering after graduating high school, while keeping his passions of painting and filmmaking alive. Naturally intelligent, he describes himself as respectful, humble, and goofy. His interests include football, always pulling for the Chargers, and hip hop music. Jamaica, France, Italy, and Japan are the places he most wants to visit after college, and hopes to someday live in Paris with a wife and children.
Curissa Davis is a sixteen year old president of the student body at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans. The baby of three brothers and three sisters, she has been born and raised in the Gentilly neighborhood. She has been volunteering throughout her life and loves any chance to learn or experience new things. Empathetic and altruistic by nature, comforting and helping people is ingrained in her personality, and her self confidence helps her achieve all of the goals she lays out for herself. In her spare time she plays softball, takes pictures, writes, draws, and sings in her church choir.
Matthew Gray is a senior at Joseph Clark High School, who lives in the Mid City area of New Orleans. An active member of his high school, he is a starter on the varsity basketball team, a member of the first place debate team, and has achieved the rank of second lieutenant of the R.O.T.C. His interest in social and political issues led him to co-found the Young Democrats of America chapter at his high school. Funny, confident and always ready with a smile, Matt has been making short vignettes, many of them comedic, about his neighborhood for the last year. With this project he will get the chance to take his skills to the next level. After high school he plans to study law and politics, and wants someday to enact change on the national level as a United States Congressman.
Daylin Bolding is a junior in high school who hails from the Mid-City area. He aspires to attend college after high school, and hopes someday to produce music. His passion for music includes hip hop performance and playing the drums. Naturally observant and analytical he is sometimes mistaken for being overly shy. However his intelligence and keen nature make him always ready with an insightful opinion or reflection on a topic. He has an instinctive understanding of camera work and photography, and knowing when to roll the camera to capture the moment. He has been interested in filmmaking from a young age, and jumped at the chance to take part in this project.
Imani Sims is a freshmen at Thurgood Marshall Early College High School who lives in the St. Roch area of New Orleans. Naturally eloquent, creative, and intelligent, writing poetry and hip hop lyrics are two of her primary interests. She also sings in the choir at her church, and she performs her own music. She is outspoken and opinionated and always ready with a smirk and a laugh in any situation. In three words she would describe herself as confident, silly, and talkative. She’s already looking forward to attending college and then moving on to graduate school.