I spent three years working as a RECYouth Coordinator facilitating multimedia production programs for teens and young adults via NYC Parks & Recreation.

mindful media literacy & production - urban | relativelylocal.com

RECYouth, hosted at select computer resource centers in New York City, offers free digital technology workshops and classes for pre–teens and teens, and exposes them to marketable multimedia skills as they discover their creative imaginations, develop community awareness, make movies, photographs, animations, and music. In this program, media literacy is contingent to media production as youth create as they investigate, innovate, and interpret the world around them.
As part of the RECYouth program, pre–teens and teens ages 12 to 17 are introduced to many possible career options within the media industry in New York, but, more importantly, they are encouraged to engage the media landscape while they expand their creative imaginations, their consciences, their community awareness, and the implicit challenges and discoveries they soon face as young adults.
 

How I was involved…

 
December 2007 – January 2010
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Hamilton Fish Recreation Center (New York City)
Computer Resource Center / RECYouth (Reel Education & Communication for Youth) Coordinator & Multimedia Teacher:
• Coordinated Multimedia Education Program Development in a community based computer lab, maintaining facility of 10 iMAC G4s, 12 Dell PCs, printers, scanners, photography/digitalAV production equipment.
• Developed & Implemented Curriculum for elementary school aged youth (After School Program), teens (RECYouth multimedia program), adults & seniors learning computer basics, media literacy, multimedia skills, including: digital photography, stop motion & Flash animation, electronic music & video production, web & graphic design.
• Established and maintained partnerships with alternative education programs at City As School High School, Henry Street Settlement, New Museum, Rhizome and the MIX NYC “A Different Take” LGBT Video Production Program.
• Developed student assessment rubric tracking system, currently used by other RECYouth staff.
• Trained staff individually & through presenting at staff development workshops; managed interns.
• Authored DVDs, developed & maintained websites, created online galleries of students’ productions.
• Co-produced multimedia showcase events, screenings and exhibits.
• Led Elementary and Middle School Students (in our After-School Program) to create a comic book about recycling, which got the attention of NYC Parks & Recreation’s upper management, resulting in their providing our park with recycling bins and scheduling weekly pick-ups for the recyclables we collected around our park.
• Facilitated the production of student multimedia projects: over 35 videos, over 40 music tracks, several photography / graphic art portfolios and websites.
July 2007 – December 2007
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, various sites (NYC)
RECYouth (Reel Education & Communication for Youth) Coordinator & Multimedia Teacher
Fall 2007 After School Programs at Sunset Park & Tony Dapolito Recreation Centers
• Taught Elementary to High School aged students: digital photography, stop motion animation, electronic music and video production.
• Trained the Computer Resource Center (CRC) coordinator to implement the RECYouth multimedia curriculum upon my departure, ie. promotion.
Summer 2007 – Winter 2008 Chelsea Recreation Center, CRC / RECYouth headquarters
• Reorganized harddrives to create archive of all multimedia content produced since 2003.
• Developed archival file naming conventions now used throughout all RECYouth Centers.
• Developed multimedia marketing materials, including copy writing, website & brochure design.
Summer 2007 Girls’ Photography Program at Sunset Park Recreation Center
• Taught a group of student Interns (Summer Youth Employment Program) >digital photography (manual settings for focus, aperture, shutter speed, and depth of field) with Sony a100 SLR cameras & Photoshop.
• Facilitated production of print and web portfolios http://relativelylocal.com/sunsetGirlsPhoto/
• Curated exhibition at Director’s Guild Theater during the 4th RECYouth Multimedia Festival.

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