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Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student Prrogram
Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student Program?
It is a groundbreaking National Pilot Service-Learning project, created to connect students with the history within their own back yards by providing them a means to interpret that history for other students.

From beginning to end, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have created, produced, and directed six mini-movies or Vodcasts focusing on the historic John Brown Raid, which sparked fighting in the American Civil War and for many the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.

Based on their personal hands-on experiences in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and analysis of primary source documents, approximately 70 kids selected pivotal events related to the Raid to focus on. With academic input, they’ve served as writers, editors, photographers, choreographers, set designers, videographers, and even public relations representatives to produce and promote the six two-minute mini-documentaries that can be downloaded online for students of ages to learn from.

How is it groundbreaking? 
It’s groundbreaking because never has a National Park accepted videos created by 6th, 7th, and 8th graders as part of their “official interpretive materials.”

• It is groundbreaking because it is one of first service learning project in the country to give academic credit to students for creating interpretative materials for a National Park, and in the process, connecting young people to their heritage and then sharing it with other students using 21st Century technology.
• It’s groundbreaking because it combines primary source documentation, with student interpreted insight and 21st century multimedia technology.
  It’s groundbreaking because rarely have 6th, 7th and 8th graders had to grapple with primary source documents and decide amongst themselves, “What is the real story here?”
• It's groundbreaking because it's the first program conducted under the Preserve America Service Learning Project and is intended to be a template for federal and state agencies, tribal and Native Hawaiian groups, historic preservation organizations, local schools and their communities across the nation.
• It’s groundbreaking because never before has a non-profit, a National Park, a Middle School, and the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation worked together to create a national pilot program.
• It’s groundbreaking because never before, has a non-profit corporation, in this case, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, been asked to use the power of private-public partnership, to create a program like this, and fund it without federal or state funding.
• It’s groundbreaking because never before have students used the media they most relate to (Vodcasts, MP3 players, YouTube, and the Internet) to create official interpretative materials for the National Park Service.
• It’s groundbreaking because this program connects students to an upcoming national anniversary and tribute to crucial events in our nation’s history -- the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Civil War and the John Brown Raid, which sparked fighting in the War.

Why Create Such a Program? 
Authentic experience of history is essential to engage contemporary generations in understanding their own pasts and making the vibrant stories of those who came before us real and relevant. Book learning and lectures alone simply do not instill the essential understanding that history offers real stories of real people, and that young people today are participants in that history who will shape the futures of their communities and this nation depending upon their understanding and involvement in civic affairs.

Students today are less inclined to engage with stationary history exhibits because they turn to web-based, immediate-access information, to secure much of their information.
In this digital age of peer and social networking, we have an opportunity to create history advocates and active civic participants by making history and historic places relevant by using the communication tools they use. This program is designed to translate historic moments into dynamic lessons for today.

Why is this Program Useful? 
This program encourages students to not just appreciate the struggles of the past, but also to reenact those events, in effect, re-experience them on film. And it lets others learn from their experiences.
It connects young people to our country’s past using mediums they that enjoy and in turn can learn through. It creates an understanding will help them grow into young adults, and even into our country’s future leaders.

Why are you launching this program at the site of John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry? 
2009 is the 150th anniversary commemoration of the October 16th John Brown Raid

During the 100th Anniversary of the Civil War in 1959, a time of significant racial unrest, John Brown’s Raid was NOT accepted by the National Commemorative Commission as the legitimate start of the Civil War
Most historians universally however credit John Brown with sparking the Civil War. So, we thought it was time for a new perspective on this critical part of our shared American Heritage.

Who will this “Of, For and By the Student” program relate to? 
Obviously, middle schoolers. They will see that how their contemporaries undertook such a heady project and put forth their ideas. Middle schoolers from around the world can see what their peers accomplished and may follow in suit.

Younger students and older ones, too – they will realize that they too have the tools to examine the history in their backyards and that their voices count, too.

In fact, students of all ages can appreciate and relate to the Harpers Ferry Middle School kids for their initiative, their ability to examine history, and weigh-in on a highly debated historical topic.

How Were The Students Selected? 
In January 2009, all 400 Harpers Ferry Middle School students were invited to the Park where they were given tours and immersed in the Park and its history.

Subsequently, approximately 70 students volunteered to continue their learning experience by producing from start to finish six short films

What Were the Roles Of the Students in the Project? 
The students are sixth, seventh and eighth graders from Harpers Ferry Middle School. The 70 students involved divided themselves into eight teams – six focused on the videos, one on costumes and set designs, and the other on public relations.

After reviewing source documentation, learning the history and experiencing the Park first hand, the students selected six topics to focus on, related to the John Brown story.

With academic guidance, they’ve served as writers, editors, photographers, choreographers, set designers, videographers, and even public relations representatives to produce and promote the six two-minute mini-documentaries.

What are the Video Topics? 

• Troubling the Water — A careful look at John Brown through his diaries, speeches and letters.
• Choices — This movie looks at the lives of Annie and Watson Brown, two of John Brown’s children.
• Jumps to Freedom — This team looked at the lives of two black raiders, John Anthony Copeland and his uncle, Lewis Sheridan Leary.
• Harriet and Dangerfield Newby — Four sixth-grade boys tell a love story that introduces the viewer to Dangerfield Newby and his quest to free his wife and children from slavery.
• The Children of the Raid — This team looks at the raid from the perspective of two young children who experienced it.
• Wat Up? — This group takes an energetic, hip hop approach to the John Brown raid.
  

How Will the Videos be Used? 

• Once the videos are unveiled on June 25, HFNHP will use them as part of their official interpretation of the John Brown Raid.
• The two-minute Vodcasts will be seen and downloaded from the HFNHP Web site.
• They can be downloaded onto portable multimedia players to view when in the Park.
• They also will be seen on the Partners sites including the JTHG Partnership site.
• They will be seen in various peer networks, including YouTube

Who are the Partners and What are their Roles? 
It’s a program 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.

For example:
The Harpers Ferry Middle School saw the value in the project, created time in the student’s school schedules, and incorporated the program into the curriculum.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park made their rangers, key staff, and the Park’s resources available to guide the students through source materials and the Park itself on a regular basis.

As creator of the program, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership underwrote the program, as well as provided educational staff, multimedia tools, other key staff, and the day-to-day resources to support the students’ efforts

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is federal agency that includes the secretaries or heads of 10 government departments and agencies. It promotes the preservation, enhancement, and productive use of the nation’s historic resources, and advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. ACHP sees this program as a way to spur service learning at other federal and local historic properties across the nation. This program is the first tangible result of the Advisory Council’s Service Learning Project.

What is the Future of this Program and Why is it Deemed a Pilot Program?
The Harpers Ferry version of the Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student program will serve as a model for similar partnerships and productions throughout the Journey National Heritage Area as well as across the nation.

How is this Program Funded? 
The JTHG Partnership has underwritten the $40,000 cost of this pilot program. With additional funding, the Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student partnership is expected to move forward into the 12 other National Parks within the JTHG National Heritage Area and then through the multitude of heritage sites within the JTHG National Heritage Area.

How did this get started? 
The ACHP convened a meeting in December 2008 among many federal stewardship agencies with significant youth involvement and education programs to present the concept of service learning as an integral part of each agency's efforts, and to determine whether they considered service learning a viable concept for the agencies. Although none of the agency programs included service learning as a strategy, all attending representatives believed that service learning could and should be included in youth involvement and education strategies.

The ACHP asked the agencies to form partnerships with groups such as the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership to create service learning opportunities with local schools, and asked the JTHGP as a nonprofit organization to create a national pilot Service Learning Program to connect students with the history within their own back yards.

Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student is the first service learning project conducted under the Preserve America Service Learning Project and is intended to be a template for federal agencies, historic preservation organizations, tribal and Native Hawaiian groups, local schools and their communities across the nation.

What is a Service- Learning Project? 
Service learning is essentially community service with an academic overlay. Service learning projects fulfill contemporary community needs and do so in a manner that fully engages students, involves their schools, and meet curricula requirements. About half the high schools and middle schools in the United States require service learning, and the Obama Administration has a stated goal of having all middle school and high school students involved in 50 hours of service learning every year.

The most popular fields for service learning are environmental and historic preservation efforts, but service learning is applicable to a broad range of academic disciplines.

Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student is the first service learning project conducted under the Preserve America Service Learning Project and is intended to be a template for federal agencies, historic preservation organizations, local schools and their communities across the nation.

Service Learning Programs have been around for many years, what makes this one different? 
Service learning has been around for many years, and significant and profound accomplishments have come from the many programs offered. However, aside from the efforts of the Corporation for National and Community Service and its Learn and Serve America service learning component, there has been little coordinated effort to use service learning as a core strategy in federal agency and historic preservation organizations youth involvement activities.

The Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student effort is the first Preserve America Service Learning Project to give classroom credit to students for providing a service to their community (and to students everywhere) by creating interpretive materials that engage students with our shared heritage using primary sources and authentic experience of historic sites. It creates a template for partnerships in service learning. It uses contemporary technology and peer to peer communications to interpret important history and historic sites to a new generation.