Students at MS 424 and St. Ignatius have been given an amazing opportunity by the Virtue Foundation, through the Digital Storytelling Project. Students at the two schools received brand-new, cutting edge MacBooks and Flip cameras from the foundation, which is a non-profit branch of the U.N.

The initiative aims to widen children’s horizons by allowing them to create video segments that discuss the issues that concern them in the neighborhood, and encouraging community involvement.  The students use the MacBooks and Flip phones to go out in to the community, conduct interviews with notable community members and groups on camera and then use the footage to create their own original pieces.

Recently, the students got to travel to the U.N have the project introduced to them, and they also got to meet Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who explained the ICivics portion of the project. ICivics is a program started by O’Connor that encourages community involvement and knowledge about the United States Government. The students will also complete two ICivics workshops as a part of the project.

SIS recently finished the project, and MS 424 is scheduled to start soon.

Check out the Virtue Foundation’s website here, or look at HPAC’s photos on their facebook page!