My MIT friend and colleague, Lisa Dush, also runs Storybuilders, which helps organizations and individuals make digital stories. In January, I went with her to Washington, DC to work with the staff of College Summit, a really cool nonprofit organization that works with high schools to raise their college-ready culture and get more kids into college. For two full days, we worked with the six staff members on developing and revising their stories, recording the audio tracks, uploading photo files into the video software, and constructing the mix of words, sound, images, and effects. Later, Lisa worked with the College Summit folks on production.
She recently sent me a link to the finished stories! Here is Darin’s on College Summit alumni leaders. Even though I heard Darin read his story aloud many times during workshop, and also looked over his shoulder as he sorted through images, I was surprised and moved by several moments. This is a powerful testament to peer mentors (and superhero underpants).
More of the College Summit stories can be found at the Storybuilders’ site on Vimeo.
leaf stitch word 
What a *pair* of fantastic organizations! It’s all too easy, at the other end of that process, to forget how difficult it was for first-generation college students to *get* to our campuses in the first place, and how hard it can be for them to *be* there sometimes. Thanks to you, and Lisa, and Darin for the reminder.
Thanks, Rosemary.
A College Summit staffer from West Virginia made a story, too: http://www.vimeo.com/10331748 At the time, I didn’t fully appreciate what it meant to be from coal country, as Jayme’s story conveys. After I read your post, “Coal” — http://romantoes.blogspot.com/2010/04/coal.html — on what it’s like to live in West Virginia, Jayme’s story resonated even more.
Jane, I just now found your reply to my comment and watched the video–which very nearly had me in tears.
I’m so glad to know this organization is working in West Virginia!
During the Montcoal incident, I heard an interview on NPR with two miners who’d formerly worked in the mine that exploded. One talked about how he’d really *wanted* to do something other than be a miner after high school, and tried to, but couldn’t find anything better than minimum wage jobs in his area. After he married and had kids, he went into the mines because it was pretty much the only way to make enough to support a family.
So, college matters a *lot* for students from those communities. And the thing that I suspect they’d never believe is that they are often our very best students. About half of WVU’s students are from out-of-state (largely from New Jersey, PA, and Maryland), and I think our WV students often feel intimidated by them. But the in-state students generally outperform them–and certainly have a better sense of what a college education can do for them.