Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student:
Harpers Ferry Middle Schoolers Begin Production on Vodcasts for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
on March 27
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership Teams with the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and Harpers Ferry Middle School to Focus on Students’ Perspective of History

For Immediate Release
March 23, 2009
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Waterford, Virginia — What doesn’t belong in this group -- wireless multimedia, middle school students or the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Civil War?

The answer is none of the above.

In fact, they all fit into a groundbreaking multimedia project created by students, for students, and sponsored by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (HFNHP) and the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

This 21st century service-based learning project is a student-inspired initiative that will create six wireless video vignettes or Vodcasts, offering middle-school students’ perspectives on the famous John Brown Raid in Harpers Ferry, which set-off fighting in the American Civil War.

With storyboards and scripts nearly done, six teams of Harpers Ferry Middle School students will move into the video production phase on March 27, when press are invited to see the young filmmakers in action.

“We all experience life differently, and the student viewpoint is both special and unique,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership.

“Students relate best to other students – their peers. So why not take a look at history through their eyes, using their lens to focus on these historically significant events, bringing them to life for young people around the world to appreciate.”

Based on personal hands-on experiences in the park and analysis of primary source documents, the students have selected pivotal events related to the Raid to focus on. Then, they serve as writers, editors, photographers, choreographers and videographers to produce the six two-minute mini-documentaries.

With the scripts now written, it’s time for the students to head to their movie sets, where they will begin shooting video to create their mini-movies, which soon will be used by thousands of other students visiting HFNHP. Later this year, students of all ages will be able to download the movies at the Park or online on to personal multimedia players to use while visiting the HFNHP.

With the commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War at its door step, HFNHP realized that they needed a new and different way to bond with young people and share information about the area and our nation’s history.

“We know that today’s young people are connected to a high-tech media world,” said Dennis E. Frye, chief historian of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. “We saw this as a terrific opportunity to let students connect the past to the present and retell a story in their own voices while using their own vision and their own medium.

“The immediacy of the technology combined with their fresh perspective will enrich the park experience for visitors of all ages,” Frye continued.

Bruce Milhans, spokesman for the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, said, “We believe that this service learning project will become a model for federal agencies and historic preservation organizations across the country, and encourage other heritage sites to work with their neighboring schools to produce partnerships that benefit students, their communities, and the nation.”

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership is working to bring its Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student program to surrounding schools, national parks and heritage areas in the region. Educating teachers, students, citizens and visitors is one of the primary objectives of the JTHG Partnership. Since its inception in 2006, this non-profit, four-state, public-private partnership has developed and underwritten a variety of educational programs, including the highly acclaimed Extreme Journey camps, the high-school Summer Enrichment Camp with the University of Virginia, the high school programs for Loudoun County AP History classes, the semester-long teacher certificate course taught through the Virginia Community College System, the semester courses for graduate students at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech as well as a variety of teacher workshops.

The ACHP, an independent federal agency that includes the secretaries or heads of 10 government departments and agencies, promotes the preservation, enhancement, and productive use of the nation’s historic resources, and advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. For more information, go to President'sAdvisoryCounscilonHistoricPreservation.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is more than one single event in American history and has few parallels. It is multi-layered set of events, involving a diverse number of people influenced the course of our nation's history. Harpers Ferry witnessed the first successful application of interchangeable manufacture; the arrival of the first successful American railroad; John Brown's attack on slavery; the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War; the education of former slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in the United States and the first American meeting of the Niagara Convention led by W.E.D.DuBois . For more information, go to: Harpers Ferry Historical Park.

To See the Students in Action, Media Should Contact:
John K. Jones, JTHG Partnership, Director of Communications
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it 703.999.7579

Marsha Wassel, HFNHP
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304.535.6748