Teaching Youth, while instilling Passion and Empowering them to lead.

Connecting with students is one of the most important elements of successful teaching. In today’s world with information, peer pressure and parental pressure constantly presented to young people it is easy to understand how many can be overwhelmed and overlooked.

It is a visual media world with youtube, twitter, facebook, video games and everything else that is available on the internet. Young people spend hours every day viewing and using some sort of visual media.

So what if you were able to take a subject that was important to a local group of high school students and show them how to turn it into a story and then produce a high quality movie based on their own script?

It’s a powerful process that can ignite and entrust youth to be leaders in their own community.

Project AWARE has done this in Maine communities and the results have been inspiring. I personally attended the premiere of their latest film, "Influenced" and I was fascinated by the stories that the teenagers told and how empowered all of them were by the process of making the film.

This is education at its best.

I would like to see this process happen in as many Maine communities as possible. In the next two weeks there will be two assemblies at Falmouth High School where students will go through a brief workshop and view the movie, "Influenced". The intent is to help create “ a community where young people are leaders, and are addressing issues of concern in their lives from their perspective and in their voice…. a place where their voices, thoughts, concerns, and solutions are welcomed and heard… and from that place, youth-led action is taken. “

On Monday March 22- 6-8pm in the FHS Music Room there will be a parent night where the workshop and “Influenced” will be presented to parents.

From that point forward there is the opportunity for Falmouth students to create their own film and express themselves in regard to issues that impact them and their community.

All of this comes outside of the local education budget. If you would like to donate to the Falmouth Presentations please send checks to”
Falmouth High School,
In the memo line write "Enrichment Program"
74 Woodville Rd
Falmouth, Maine 04015

If you would like to donate directly to Project AWARE please send checks to:

Project AWARE, Inc.
PO Box 1244,
Saco, ME 04072