Media Making Change
4013 N Gantenbein, Portland, OR 97227 (503) 975-4545
Since 2006, the Northwest Institute has annually hosted a Summer Documentary Program, an intensely fun and intensely productive two-month long academic and media-training program. We have hosted students from across the country and, during each program, students learn how to produce professional-quality radio and video documentaries.
Based on the success of these, we have expanded our services to include three programs: Summer Documentary Program; Radio Summer; and Teen Voices.
To meet the students in their own words, voices and sounds, please give a listen to a few Audio Postcards they produced during their first week of “camp.”
Students are handpicked for their smarts, passion and optimism. Because we want to provide direct and undivided attention, each program is limited to 12 participants. Over the past four years, we have worked with students from across the country—from Brown, Princeton, University of Wisconsin, Macalester, Whitman, Reed, as well as dozens more top-notched colleges.
Many of our students had never picked up a camera or microphone before attending. Yet they left with professional-grade skills for producing media projects and a strong knowledge about how to affect real social change, as well as life-long friends. Although we have only been here for three years, we already have graduates working at Air America, Boston Globe, Teach for America, Free Press and with Peter Seeger!
We encourage prospective students to contact alumni to ask them about their experiences. You can find them on our Facebook account. Or, you can read the students’ blog from previous programs.
In most simple terms, students produce professional-grade, engaging media projects. Over the past few years, the theme has been “local solutions to global issues”—whether that means a community program to re-integrate prisoners into the work force or a city-sponsored program for community gardens. Yes, we teach production skills, but we also emphasis creativity and critical-thought skills that will carry our alumni through their entire careers and lives. We recognize that technology is changing and we want our graduates to be comfortable adapting to new media tools. The common thread is that students learn journalist tools so that they can articulate positive solutions.
For the 2010 Summer Documentary Program, Sara Rasmussen (Whitman College '12), Emily Lad (Tufts University '11), and Madeline Thompson (Portland State University '14) brought audiences the story of a young employee of the popular Voodoo Doughnut Van, a summer outreach program for undersupported youth, and put together a website for the film's promotion:
Also during the 2010 Summer Documentary Program, three students—Colin Christopher (University of Wisconsin), Katherine Bascom (Wesleyan University '10) and Caroline Koehler (Whitman College '12)—showed that backyard chicken coops can reduce carbon footprints.
During the 2008 program, four students—Russ Caditz-Peck (Whitman College '10), Caitlin Clay (Brown University), Catherin Woodiwiss (Colby College) and Mark Saldana (Macalester College)—looked at the challenges for reintegrating former inmates into the workforce:
For more videos produced by our students, please visit our YouTube page.
Recognizing that most food travels 1500 miles from production to plate, during the 2008 program, Tom Niemisto (St. Olaf College '08) and Catherine Woodiwiss (Colby College '09) produced a short radio program about backyard chicken coops as a means to encourage more local food production:
In the summer of 2008, Christine Lai (Oberlin College ’10) and Molly Bennett (Colby College ’10) visited the North Portland Tool Library, a hands-on community building effort:
©2006–2012 Media Institute for Social Change.