The young child looked out the dirty window at the strange people who had come to the migrant camp. The logo on the back of the visitors’ shirts caught her eye as she pulled the curtain aside to get a better look. She was too young to read, but the bright purple and gold text with the picture of a cougar stirred her curiosity. The skinny child quickly withdrew, but not before she raised her slight hand and waved. This happened quickly, but not so fast that the visitors missed the sadness and gentleness in the girl’s face. Who were these strangers? Why were they in the camp?

King Cougar Productions, an 8th grade Video and Broadcast Journalism class at Christ The King Elementary School, having received a request from Catholic Charities of Virginia, accepted the challenge of bringing social and economic awareness of the impoverished conditions of the migrant worker on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the hopes of bringing about change.

On a rainy Thursday morning in October, armed with camcorders and cameras twelve students and two teachers, alighted from a van to begin collecting film, pictures, and information as the first step in creating a documentary. As they viewed the migrant camp in the hot, humid air, depression filled their hearts. The barrack – style homes were built around a central washroom and communal kitchen. Laundry hung from drooping lines not with close pins, but tied in knots by the tails and ends for there was no money for clothespins. A laundry room jutted out from the end of the bathrooms, but the washing machines and dryers were silent as the women hand scrubbed the laundry, as once again there were no extra coins. Cameras and video caught the living conditions of these people in a way that no words could ever do. As the students snapped shot after shot, as the tape in the video cameras picked up every aspect of the pathetic living conditions, they became determined to use their skills and knowledge to stamp an image in the minds of the local residents and businesses.

Preparation began back in the classroom in preproduction. Decisions were made to answer the ageless question, “ How can I make a difference?” Students began writing storyboards and checking equipment for the trip. Once back, the real task of postproduction began: music score creation, downloading, editing, scripting, The result was a DVD to be used to solicit funds from the private sector for a matching funds grant to build affordable housing for the migrant workers and their families.

King Cougar Productions sprang from humble beginnings in 2001 as an after school club. Students interested in computers came together to prepare for an annual computer skills contest against other schools in the state. The following year the club became a seventh and eighth grade elective class in the school’s curriculum.

Advanced Tech, as the class became known, filmed the school’s Christmas Pageants, Talent Shows, and an assortment of classroom productions. That same year, the AT students became mentors to the teachers and maintained the teachers’ classroom web photo pages on the school’s website. In addition the students were responsible for photography requests from their teachers, and they played an important role in producing graphic art pages for the school’s re-accreditation report.

The explosion of digital media in today’s world has produced a distinct need for schools to teach and integrate digital media usage into the school’s curriculum. Our program is designed to teach students the basics of digital technology while allowing for individual creativity and advancement within a structured setting.