HECUA DIGITAL MEDIA PROGRAM
MEDIA AND MOVEMENTS
STORYTELLING FOR JUSTICE
Add your voice to the growing media justice movement. Seek out and amplify hidden stories. No production experience necessary.
St. Paul Neighborhood Network, St. Paul, MN
EXPLORE THE PROGRAMHistorical source information shown below; verify application details, dates, and pricing before publishing as current information.
Spring 2022 (Feb. 1 - May 13)
MEDIA, REPRESENTATION & CHANGE
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Narrative is the lens through which we see the world and a tool we can use to shape it. Students spend the semester exploring the ways in which media and film can either reinforce dominant stories or disrupt them, amplifying different perspectives and possibilities.
By the end of the semester, all students will have the skills needed to produce films that inform, inspire, and activate.
Media and Movements: Storytelling for Justice is taught in collaboration with the St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), a community media center that puts cameras into the hands of historically marginalized producers.
Students of all experience levels have the opportunity to hone their artistic and creative voice by producing three original films, including a final work created in collaboration with a local nonprofit.
In addition to hands-on training, students meet artists, community leaders, and activists committed to creating media that matters.
Student work is situated in the context of a growing movement to make media accessible, relevant, and reflective of diverse voices.
HOW LEARNING HAPPENS
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Class meets twice a week for seminar-style discussion and practical skill-building sessions in the digital laboratory.
Practical skill-building sessions support students as they develop their digital media practice.
Students take an 8-credit internship and seminar that supports their digital media training, allowing them to apply their developing skills at a local organization.
AREAS OF INQUIRY
TOPICS & THEMES
PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
STAFF AND FACULTY
FACULTY
Emily Oliver
Emily is a poet and educator who lives in South Minneapolis. Since 2017, Emily has worked at Carleton College, where she was the Associate Director for Academic Civic Engagement and Scholarship in the Center for Civic and Community Engagement and a lecturer in the program for Ethical Inquiry.
With Education Studies faculty member Anita Chikkatur, Emily is the Co-PI of the Carleton Faribault PAR Collaboration, a participatory action research project about educational equity in Faribault, Minnesota.
Thanks to the support of a Carleton Public Works Initiative grant, Emily and Faribault community organizer Cynthia Gonzalez recently co-designed and co-taught the course Community-based Learning & Scholarship: Ethics, Practices.
Previously, Emily taught as a lecturer in the English Department at Cornell University, where she received her MFA in Poetry. She also taught courses through the Cornell Prison Education Program at Auburn Correctional Facility and the Telluride Association Summer Program.
Emily’s poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. Her book manuscript was named a finalist for the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize at Persea Books.
In 2019, her co-written article Digital Participatory Poetics and Civic Engagement in the Creative Writing Classroom was published in the Journal of Creative Writing Studies.
An article Emily co-wrote with Computer Science Professor Amy Cizmar-Dalal, Case Study: A Multi-year Community-Engaged Learning Capstone in Computer Science, is described in the supplied source as forthcoming from The Journal of Higher Education Outreach & Engagement.
Historical “forthcoming” reference; verify before publication.
SPNN STAFF
Za'Nia Coleman
Za’Nia Coleman is an interdisciplinary artist and Co-Organizer of the Tangible collective.
At SPNN, she works as the Media Center Coordinator & Youth Program Facilitator. Her primary medium is film, focusing on documentary and oral history.
She has been holding spaces and creating experiences that center Black thought and expression in the Twin Cities for over three years.
Along with her cultural work, she works with textiles in theatre and teaches community sewing classes. The root of her work is sustaining traditional and historical practices around love, pleasure, cultural expression, and community building.
ACADEMIC CURRICULUM
COURSES
FROM CONSUMERS TO CREATORS
4 creditsThe From Consumers to Creators course is a critical exploration of the role of storytelling and media in social change efforts.
Students examine the ways that story is both a lens through which they understand the world and a tool they can use to shape it.
Students have the opportunity to learn about and evaluate media-based activist strategies in the context of competing theoretical perspectives on media and society.
Students use theory and field experiences to reflect upon and hone their own digital practices as effective agents of social change.
DIGITAL LABORATORY
4 creditsThe Digital Laboratory course is focused on the development and production of compelling videos. Student videography is expected to demonstrate both innovative content and high-quality production.
As part of this course, students are trained by SPNN staff in:
- Camera operations
- Aesthetics of video production
- Shot composition
- Audio
- Lighting
- Editing
Student work is assessed with their growing skill set in mind. The grading rubric assesses both technical improvement and improvements in storytelling ability.
This reflects the program’s focus on media that catalyzes social change. By the end of the semester, students will be able to produce video suitable for public broadcast.
APPLIED INTERNSHIP
8 creditsThis internship is 150 hours and takes place at SPNN or other internship site placements around the Twin Cities, based on student interest and skill level.
Students may:
- Build on Digital Laboratory skills to create programming.
- Produce professional-level videos for community clients.
- Assist in the daily work of the organization, such as communications, youth work, or fundraising.
- Teach community producers basic video production skills and act as a resource for community programming.
All students meet regularly with program faculty and classmates to reflect on their work, integrate the internship with program content, and receive support toward accomplishing individual learning goals.
HECUA interns are able to explore multiple skills while taking on their own independent film projects during the second half of their internships.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENT
COMPLETE SYLLABUS
Historical syllabus reference; verify document relevance and destination before publication.
LEARNING IN COMMUNITY
INTERNSHIPS
While the majority of Media and Movements students intern with SPNN, internship placement is determined by the interests and skill levels of students and the current needs of partner organizations.
Students intern 12-15 hours per week, 150 hours total.
Below are details of a few recently completed internships and projects.
COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM (CTEP)
HECUA interns work with the Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) at SPNN, a program that works to close the digital divide for new immigrants and low-income communities in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
The HECUA intern was the production manager for four CTEP AmeriCorps technology civic engagement videos.
One example of the videos created was a piece highlighting Stop! Animate!, a three-week stop-motion animation camp for youth at CLUES.
SPNN COMMUNITY PRODUCTIONS
Two recent HECUA interns were production interns with the Community Productions department at SPNN.
One student helped coordinate and schedule guests for the SPNN Forum series. She played a major role in seeking speakers, scheduling and preparing the shows, and interviewing guests on some occasions.
The other student completed an SPNN internship in the Community Productions department based on technical experience and filming skill. The student was quickly treated like a staff member, operating the camera at community events such as the Saint Paul Forum and at community parades.
The student also worked on graphics, post-production, and filming episodes of Candy Fresh, an original live music and dance show highlighting local artists in front of a live audience.
LINE BREAK MEDIA
Line Break works with artists, organizers, and advocates to craft their stories into powerful instruments for transformative social change.
The HECUA student intern spent the semester working on multiple film projects, including pre-production, post-production, and editing work for a short animation used at an event for a Minnesota-based funder.
The intern also worked from the beginning to the end of a video for the Hmong American Farmers Association.
HISTORICAL PRICING — REVIEW REQUIRED
PROGRAM COSTS
Media and Movements: Storytelling for Justice is a semester-long program based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota that allows students to have an immersive, community-based learning experience.
Program fees include tuition, all reading materials, field visits (including meals while traveling), and tickets to events and opportunities associated with the program.
Students from the University of Minnesota pay $9,200.
Students from all consortium member schools except Denison University and the University of Minnesota pay $14,600.
*unDACAmented students from Augsburg College receive a $3,000 scholarship from Augsburg for a 16 credit course.Students from nonmember schools and Denison University pay $15,500.
Although a HECUA member, Denison has opted to apply its member discount to a grant program dedicated to assisting low-income Denison students who wish to participate in a HECUA program.FUNDING SUPPORT
SCHOLARSHIPS
HECUA distributes scholarships to students from consortium member schools.
$500 for short-term programs.
Current scholarship availability and eligibility require administrative verification.
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