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Educating For Democracy – An Uncommon Standard
 Buried under this past summer's headlines about the crisis of unemployment, the BP Gulf oil spill, and the "ground zero mosque" banning and Koran burning, was also news about education. The Obama administration is making college graduation a priority calling for an additional 8 million college graduates over the next decade; national core academic standards were adopted by 27 states supporting K-12 students' college and career readiness; and a competitive "Race to the Top" federal education reform grant was awarded to a dozen states, including New York.
These college graduation goals and new standards resonate with us at EVC. Throughout the past 26 years of our documentary workshops...
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 Efrain Torres is a 17-year-old self-titled "proud Puerto Rican" currently living in East New York. This past spring he graduated from City-As-School High School - Brooklyn and begins college this fall. As a participant in EVC's Basic and Advanced Youth Documentary Workshops this past year, Efrain collaboratively produced two documentaries: Another Part of Me, a youth perspective on the aftermath of drugs and incarceration in communities and As the Sun Comes Up, the Bricks Fall Down about gentrification in two New York City neighborhoods, including one in Brooklyn where Efrain spent his childhood...
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Lynette Lauretig is currently the Director of Instructional Models, NYC Department of Education, Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. With funding from the New York Community Trust, EVC is integrating its curriculum throughout the OMPG's schools. At EVC's First Annual Youth-Powered Video Film Festival she was presented with EVC's first Visionary Leadership Award for her pioneering work in creating and supporting new alternative and Transfer schools throughout New York City...
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 Judith Hemans is an educator at ACCESS GED Manhattan (part of the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation), which prepares over-age and under-credited late adolescents for the GED Exam and entry into either college or career. Thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation's Good Neighbor Committee, EVC was able to provide professional development and in-class coaching to teachers at ACCESS GED Manhattan to support the implementation of EVC's curriculum. Ms. Hemans is now in her second year of using the EVC curriculum independently with her English Language Arts students at ACCESS. This past spring we awarded her with EVC's first Visionary Educator Award presented to her at our First Annual Youth Powered Video Festival for the outstanding work she and her students have produced...
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A Pilot EVC Program with Bank Street College of Education
During the spring semester, EVC partnered with the Bilingual/ESL Teacher Leaders Academy (BETLA) at Bank Street College of Education providing professional development seminars and intensive in-class support for teachers to integrate video production into ESL and bilingual classrooms...
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This year, EVC held its first Summer Youth Documentary Workshop taught by freelance producer and former EVC student, Larry Washington. Over a seven week period six students and two college interns produced the film, Shades of Ignorance about the impact of homophobia on gay and bisexual youth and their families. Stipends for students were provided by the NYC Summer Youth Employment Program and the Childrens' Aid Society.
In July, EVC held its annual Youth Powered Video Institute, a week-long intensive professional development workshop for educators in the use of our curriculum. Co-facilitated by Daneen Reynolds-Knott, Kareem Lopez, and Lindsay Fauntleroy, this institute provides the foundation for EVC's External Education Programs. EVC Media Educators then build on this foundation providing teachers with weekly in-class coaching support throughout the school year. EVC's partner Transfer high schools include: Brooklyn HS for Leadership and Community Service, the High School for Excellence and Innovation, Queens Academy High School, Metropolitan Diploma Plus, and Jill Chaifetz High School. As one summer institute teacher described, "It's a brilliant way of sharing techniques in applying art and media literacy in a very accessible way." And another stated rather enthusiastically, "I loved it! Favorite workshop ever!"
This past spring EVC held its First Annual Youth-Powered Film Festival at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. The festival featured PSAs and short documentaries produced by students in schools that had incorporated EVC's "Youth-Powered Video" documentary production curriculum. Videos covered a range of topics including the health care debate, teen sexual health, community service, violence against women and illegal immigration. EVC's Director of External Education Programs, Lindsay Fauntleroy presented two awards, the Visionary Leadership Award to Lynette Lauretig from the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation and the Visionary Educator Award to Judith Hemans, a teacher at ACCESS, a Transfer school in New York City. Both award winners are interviewed in this issue.
Also at the Paley Center for Media, this past spring, EVC's Extended Day Video Program premiered the culmination of a semester's work. The program featured a short documentary, Boys Without Fathers produced by students from Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School and a full-length documentary edited together from student films created at Lower East Side Preparatory High School, Bronx Regional High School, Liberty High School Academy for Newcomers, Concord High School, and Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School entitled Race & Violence: A Youth Perspective. All of the participating schools produced films facilitated by a teacher with the coaching and assistance of an EVC Media Educator. This project was made possible with funding from the New York State Department of Education.
Finally, EVC premiered films produced during the Spring Basic and Advanced Youth Documentary Workshops. The Basic Workshop premiered What Lies Underneath America about the challenges for youth in reaching the American dream in this difficult economy and the Advanced Workshop documentary, As the Sun Comes Up, the Bricks Fall Down, which followed the stories of two workshop participants coping with the consequences of gentrification in their neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The film went beyond the problem, interviewing community activists who offered advice on what young people could do to preserve their communities.
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This fall EVC welcomes back Christine Mendoza former EVC documentary workshop student and also workshop teacher, who is taking on dual roles as Co-Director of Youth Documentary Workshop and Director of Educational Research and Evaluation. Christine comes back to EVC after spending two years in Spain where she worked for the Consejeria de Educacion, and taught English using visual media as a facilitation tool. Christine received her Masters from the Comparative Ethnic Conflict Program at Queens University in Belfast and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Media Studies from Hunter College. She has facilitated workshops at an international youth camp in Finland, to Protestant and Catholic youth in Belfast and in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also interned at ABC News and BBC Northern Ireland.
 This past spring EVC welcomed our new Development Manager Blanche Norman. Blanche holds a B.S. in Psychology from Bard College and an M.A. in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to EVC, she spent more than three years as the Director of Grants Services at a fundraising consultancy working within the social service sector. She has been employed by and has consulted for a variety of arts and social service organizations including, but not limited to, Barrier Free Living, Volunteers of America-Greater New York, the American Museum of Natural History and NOW Legal Defense Fund. Prior to consulting, Blanche was the Executive Director of Youth Theatre Interactions, a performing arts program for underserved youth in southwest Yonkers.
 This month EVC also welcomes Alex Cutler, Satellite Project Manager. Previously a Media Educator at EVC, Alex's career spans three decades of media administration, film production, and teaching. He began his career at Republic Pictures while attending UCLA's MFA producer program and Southwestern University Law School, eventually leaving Republic to join his wife in Australia. Cutler soon embarked on his own producing career, culminating with the production of one of Australia's highest profile films in its history, The Delinquents, starring international pop star Kylie Minogue in her feature film debut. After returning stateside, he became a schoolteacher, administrator, and charter school developer. Eager to return to media and producing, Cutler is currently finishing a master in media studies at New School University in New York and co-producing a new feature film, Pig, now in post-production.
 EVC also welcomes Deneen Reynolds-Knott as Lead Media Educator of the External Education Program. A native New Yorker, Deneen earned her M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University and her M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University. Prior to her work with EVC, Deneen worked as a Senior Trainer for The Posse Foundation where she facilitated workshops exploring leadership, diversity and academic excellence. Production experience includes a host of independent films and a staff position with Lifetime Networks.
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