The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership’s
Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student™ Service Learning
Program Ready for Unveiling as President Obama Challenges
Americans to
Commit to Community Service
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Confirmed with Obama Daughters Invited
June 25, 2009, 11am Harpers Ferry Middle School
For Immediate Release
June 23, 2009
Reach our press contact
Waterford, Virginia —On the heels of President Obama’s new Summer
of Service Initiative -- United We Serve – which calls on all Americans
to make community service part of their daily lives, The Journey Through Hallowed
Ground Partnership (JTHG) is unveiling the pilot initiative for Of
the Student, By the Student, For the Student™ – a groundbreaking service-learning program,
where students create mini-movies offering their interpretation of history
within their own back yards to help students from around the globe connect
to that history.
With 2009 marking the 150th anniversary of the famous John Brown Raid – a
raid that sparked fighting in the Civil War and for many, the beginning of
the civil rights movement -- six two-minute Vodcasts, created by 6th, 7th and
8th graders from Harpers Ferry Middle School and offering their depiction of
key events related to the Raid, will be revealed to the public and media for
the first time.
The Vodcasts will now be included as part of Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park’s official interpretive materials – a first for the National
Park System – and can be downloaded online from the Harpers Ferry Historical
Park’s Web site as well as from the JTHG Partnership’s website:
http://www.HallowedGround.org/OfTheStudent.
The unveiling event on June 25 will feature Robert G. Stanton, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Department of the Interior and
the Director of the newly formed Office of Youth. In addition, the Harpers
Ferry Middle School students invited President and Mrs. Obama’s daughters,
Sasha and Malia to attend.
“The JTHG Partnership is honored that Deputy Assistant Secretary Stanton – a
man who has dedicated much of his personal and professional life to engaging
youth in our national heritage – will be present to unveil this national
pilot program,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through
Hallowed Ground.
Earlier this month, Stanton said, "There is no better investment that
we can make than in those who will be in charge of preserving the richness
of our diverse collection of natural and cultural areas,"
Magennis-Wyatt further explained, “This innovative and collaborative
program is Service Learning at its best. At a time when many National Parks
see fewer visits from younger visitors, this pilot program has made it abundantly
clear that middle school students are interested in their own heritage, and
when offered the opportunity, can offer remarkable insight and even interpretive
content that engages other students.”
“Blazing trails is not new for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park,” said
John K. Jones, director of communications for the Journey Through Hallowed
Ground Partnership. “This is an extraordinary private/public partnership
that could not have happened without the commitment of the Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park, Harpers Ferry Middle School Administration, the very engaged
students, and the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation.
“It is this exceptional partnership which was forward-thinking enough
to recognize that students relate best to 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.”
Over the past five months, approximately 70 students -- under the guidance
of their teachers, Principal Joe Spurgus, JTHG Partnership educators, and the
Director of Interpretation at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park -- researched
primary source documentation, then scripted, produced, directed, and edited
the mini-movies that can be downloaded onto IPods and multimedia players for
students of all ages to see and learn from.
“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.
Based on their personal research into the Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park, the students selected the six parts of the John Brown story which most
interested them. With academic oversight, they then served as writers, editors,
photographers, costume designers, choreographers, set designers, musicians,
videographers, and even public relations representatives to produce the mini-documentaries.
They even created an invitation to Sasha and Malia Obama, requesting the First
Family’s daughters join the June 25th celebrations in Harpers Ferry.
To see the hand-written note to the Obama girls, an introductory overview
video, and the Vodcasts, please go to: http://www.HallowedGround.org/OfTheStudent
VODCAST UNVEILING
When: 11 a.m. Thursday, June 25, 2009
Who:
Robert G. Stanton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management
and Budget, for the Department of the Interior and former director of the National
Park Service
Students from Harpers Ferry Middle School who created the project
Joseph Spurgas, Harpers Ferry Middle School Principal
Cate Magennis Wyatt, President of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership
Dennis Frye, Chief Historian for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Where:
Harpers Ferry Middle School Auditorium
1710 West Washington Street
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student was created, developed and
sponsored by The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership at the request
of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, (ACHP), in conjunction with
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Harpers Ferry Middle School.
It’s a model intended to spur service learning at other federal and
local historic properties across the nation. It is also the first tangible
result of the Advisory Council’s Service Learning Project. Delivered
at the beginning of the national observation of the 150th anniversary of the
Civil War, Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student is intended to inspire
similar efforts where local schools, national parks, and historic preservation
organizations create educational service learning programs tied to curricula
to make it easy to use local heritage resources to help people better understand
American history and the importance of historic places.
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 within the JTHG National Heritage Area. 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, high school programs
for Loudoun County AP History classes, semester-long teacher certificate course
taught through the Virginia Community College System, 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: AdvisoryCouncilonHistoricPreservation
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 |
