Public Health Students Win 2018 Just Video Project Contest!

« Involving my students in the Just Video Project evolved out of multiple iterations of student activities geared toward empowering students to improve social or environmental inequities related to the course.  After experimenting with student-created websites with little to no public views, social media public service announcements with few ‘likes’, and digital poster sessions presented within our digital classroom, I considered ideas on how to better extend the students’ work into the world beyond our class. Inspired by the film festivals the BlendEd Bay Area Cinema & Filmmaking students attend, I researched high school social and environmental justice film festivals. To my surprise, I found a few options, but most of them did not fit the timeframe of a one-semester course or the focus of the video topics was too narrow when compared to the breadth of content related to public health. Luckily, I found The Intercommunity Peace and Justice center’s video contest that asks students to create dynamic videos focusing on a variety of social and environmental justice topics to share what they learned and inspire others to act for justice. The contest seems relatively small, but the video objectives and judging process are articulated well and the top three winning participants receive cash prizes. An additional benefit of entering the contest for the past three years has been the compilation of student-created media that can be seamlessly integrated into Canvas and used in a variety of other student assignments.»
–Don Rizzi, BlendEd Teacher, Public Health & Vulnerable Populations