Who: LA County Office of Education's Migrant Education Program
What: The annual "Cyber Camp" program held at the USC campus for putting technology in the hands of under-represented students
Staff: Traci Cho

Sixty middle school students from the ABC, Baldwin Park, Long Beach and Rosemead school districts spent the month of July on the campus of USC, attending a special summer camp which focused on technology. This annual program, "Cyber Camp 2005," was presented by LA County Office of Education's Migrant Education Program Region X, in partnership with University of Southern California and the Music Center Education Division.

The Music Center has been a long-time collaborator with LACOE on their summer program for migrant students. For the past few years this program has focused on putting technology in the hands of under-represented students. A common thread in each project has been the contributions of MCED artists, who have used their art form to work with students to accomplish the overall program goal and challenge assumptions about the learning process.

The focus this summer was to create an interactive book, "I Am Going To Grade 13," which explores how to prepare for getting into college from a student's point of view. Working with fine arts and graphic design lead instructors, the student researched information on the internet, wrote scripts and conducted interviews; created storyboards, filmed, acted in and edited videos, and created their own musical scores.

Keith Berger (The Chameleons - Berger & Diskin), a Music Center Roster Artist specializing in mime theatre made connections to the performing arts by combining theatre and storytelling techniques to work with the students to enhance their presentation skills, which they used for on-screen interviews and short video features.

A tangible result of the students' four weeks of working together is an actual book to be published by USC, which will include an interactive CD containing the videos they made. But it is also about sixty students with increased self-confidence and new-found pride, developing their creative and technical skills to successfully take an idea through to the final steps, that may be the most lasting legacy of all.

For information about how a Music Center artist can be a part of your district or school program, call (213) 250-ARTS or e-mail us at schoolprograms@musiccenter.org.

Written by Marlene Leuenhagen, Associate Director, School Programs