A Connecticut education service has been awarded a grant to continue work on programs that engage at-risk youth and provide educational opportunities.
Sixth-grader Janele Lawrence is using professional production equipment at the Boys and Girls Club in Waterbury. It’s part of the Skills 21@EdAdvance digital media after school program. It engages at-risk middle school students.
“This class, it’s fun,” Lawrence said. “We learn different things about making plots, and plot structure and movies. It’s inspiring because I’m learning different things.”
EdAdvance is one of six Project Innovation winners this year. NBC Connecticut and Telemundo Connecticut are awarding it $50,000 in grant money.
“Programs like these are really important because it gives students an opportunity to really look at some of the skills or passions in digital media,” said the program manager, Cameron Audia. “They can explore STEM and things that they may not be able to do in school in a little bit of an unconventional way.”
“The NBC grant is going to be expanding a program like this out into Torrington and Winchester,” Audia said. “We’re going to be working with about 100 students and that program starts in the fall.”
NBC Connecticut, Telemundo Connecticut and NBC Universal are awarding $225,000 locally to non-profits using tech-based approaches to solve real-life problems.
