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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Assistant professor Mike Conway and BVN director Bet Savich introduced the Volunteer Video Showcase at the Cinemat Wedesday evening. |
“I’d like to thank you all for being here tonight,” BVN Director Bet Savich said to a crowded room of School of Journalism graduate students and area volunteers. “We hope that tonight is a celebration of volunteerism as well as inspiration for those who aren’t already involved to become involved.”
The Volunteer Video Showcase was the culmination of assistant professor Mike Conway’s J520 Video Storytelling class. The class, offered last semester, was designed to teach graduate students the skills needed to create rich, textured stories using video.
“We at the School of Journalism are trying to adapt to the changing media world,” Conway told the crowd. “We’re training the next generation of journalists and we want them to have the skills they need to work in this new environment.”
One of the class assignments last semester was to profile the Heart and Hand nominees. The students combed through 89 essays written about the nominees; from those essays, they chose several to profile. The BVN then connected the students and volunteers.
Among the organizations and volunteers profiled were the Hand to Hand program that allows people with disabilities to pick up food for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Jazz Bloomington and “Volunteer Extraordinaire” Patty Pizzo. Pizzo, a long time Bloomington resident, has literally had her hand in everything in town, although the Sycamore Land Trust has been getting the lion’s share of her time of late.
“She’s been involved in everything,” said graduate student Daniel Robison, who produced the piece on Pizzo. “She’s played such a huge role in the development of Bloomington itself. She helped take the city from a small farming community to what it is today. I just think she’s remarkable and thought she had a great story to tell.”
“These are stories that typically aren’t told,” Conway said. “They’re not flashy. But, as video storytellers, they’re the kinds of stories we want to do. They’re about regular people doing important things.”
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Several of the volunteers and J520 students gathered at the Cinemat for the Volunteer Video Showcase asked and answered questions about the project. |
“I think the pieces were well put together,” she said. “And it was nice to see all the hard work of the volunteers in the community.”
“We want people to know what is happening here,” Savich said. “These people don’t get a lot of recognition for what they do. So, this is special because it’s a chance to shine a light on all the work they put into making this community better.”
Josh Levering, who profiled Jazz Bloomington, said he was pleased with his volunteer story, as well as the other work he did for the video storytelling class.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” Levering said. “I felt like I learned a lot. I did not know any of this technology existed when I first signed up for this class. Now, you know, I feel like I have the skills to get a job and would definitely look for something that allowed me to shoot video.”
The video showcase isn’t the only place community members can see the journalism students’ work. As part of the class, they created a Web site for the stories. One of the students also is working on packaging the pieces into a couple of specials to air on the Community Access Television Station, CATS. Conway said those should be ready to air in April or May.
“The nonprofits in Bloomington have been pretty good to the School of Journalism,” Conway said. “Every year, we unleash students on them who are learning the craft, who are new to journalism. And the community’s been pretty patient with them. This, in a way, is a thank you to them.”
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