Vidalia High School's Audio Video students recently partnered with Emmy® Award-winning PBS series, HOPE GIVERS, to create hope-inspiring content that will be streamed on Georgia Public Broadcasting's (GPB) streaming service later this year.
In the Fall of 2022, Audio Video instructor Jackson Sharpe, and Sally D. Meadows media specialist, Carrie Beth Davis carried a group of five VHS students to Georgia Public Broadcasting's studio in Atlanta. Four of the five students were finalists in The Hope Film Challenge, a national competition where students produced, filmed, and edited a short video inspiring hope.
"Our students made a really good impression with HOPE GIVERS' founder and CEO, Tamlin Hall," Sharpe says. "One of our students, Dottie McDaniel, applied and was accepted to be a Teen Content Specialist with HOPE GIVERS, and she has taken off creatively. Now, Dottie is a content creator and is featured on HOPE GIVERS' TikTok account."
Early this Spring, Hall approached Sharpe to establish a partnership between Vidalia High School as one of three schools in the state charged with creating five deliverables. The 60-90 second spots would be produced, filmed, and edited by VHS Audio Video students and center around ideas of hope. In return, HOPE GIVERS would award VHS Audio Video a stipend to invest in their students and program. VHS students filmed "man on the street" style interviews featuring VHS junior Dottie McDaniel, and seniors, Jada Clements, Khaleece Lee, and Tania Rodriguez, who covered topics such as self-care, peer support, confidence, inspiration, and stepping out of one's comfort zone.
"There was no guarantee HOPE GIVERS would be able to use our content," Sharpe says. "It depended on whether topics covered in Season 2 of HOPE GIVERS aligned with the content we produced and the quality of our content. So we were thrilled to hear not only would we have three of our deliverables featured in HOPE GIVERS Season 2, but also three Audio Video students would gain exposure as reporters on a nationally streamed platform."
Sharpe says VHS's partnership with HOPE GIVERS and Georgia Public Broadcasting "has bridged a seemingly impossible gap between a rural community like Vidalia and the Atlanta TV & film industry." HOPE GIVERS Season 2 will premier later this fall on Georgia Public Broadcasting and can be streamed at gpb.org/television/live from their website.
