We started our project, Write On!, the beginning of August 2012. Over summer, we met with our mentor, Ms. Jones to work out the final details of our project. Ian and I thought we could combine our talent in art and writing to create an art program to help the children improve their writing, drawing, and overall creative expression. Our classmates, Alex Paiz and Jack Bowlby are doing a film program at the Rohnert Park Boys and Girls Club as well, so we decided to combine certain activities in order to support our respective projects. Ian and I work on the storyboards and writing the movie plots while Jack and Alex work on filming the movies and editing them with the students.
So far we have created four movie scripts and are working on teaching the concepts of story boards. The most challenging aspect of our project so far has been dealing with high energy levels in the children we are instructing. Though we enjoy their enthusiasm, it is sometimes a challenge to get them to focus on the task at hand. The most enjoyable and rewarding part of our project so far include seeing the children improve their artistic skills and increase their knowledge on storyboards and script writing. We are hoping to do a film festival at the end of this school year to show all the fabulous work our students have created. It is very rewarding working with these adolescents. We are investing our time and patience in these children, in hopes that they will pursue a lifestyle in which art remains important.