Perry County Literacy Council Project
While interning at JPL in Harrisburg, the interns came together on a project for a local non-profit.
The finished project. www.perryliteracy.com www.jplcreative.com
Emily Strange, Production Intern, interviewing a student of the PCLC while I monitor the camera.
Chris "Zen" Zentmeyer, Live Events Production Manager and former Senior Director of Photography at JPL, supervised the interns on our first day of shooting.
The Process
Because one of their core values is spreading their knowledge to help others learn, JPL takes on a lot of interns. So every group of interns they have not only works on professional shoots with them, but is also tasked with creating an entire project for a local non-profit agency. My group choose to work with the Perry County Literacy Council, located in Newport, PA.
Once we decided on an agency to work with, we had to decide on what exactly we wanted to create for them, and what each of us would be assigned to. Emily Strange and I would focus on video production. Aidan Parker and Evan Weber would focus on SEO and other Web Tools for the PCLC, and Aidan would also create our motion graphics for the video. Alyssa Chavez would focus on creating posters and social network strategies, and Meghan Donegan would be the account manager, organizing all of our schedules and communicating with the client.
Kathleen Bentley, Executive Director of the PCLC, about to be interviewed.
The interns and Leslie Heimbaugh, Office Manager at the PCLC, and our main contact. This meeting was to demonstrate the new social media strategies.
The PCLC has had such a positive effect on many individuals in the community, and what their doing can only create a better community. Educate, job train, and get individuals into a self-sustaining system. The issues they were running into were those such as not getting their message out to potential students and donors, a poor social media strategy, and not exactly being an organization that attracts as much attention as for example an organization with cute puppies might get. They needed some way to get a message that is emotional, tells a story, and demonstrates the effect the PCLC can have on people's lives.
“It feels like we’ve been given a million dollar donation.”
A group photo after showing the final video to Leslie Heimbaugh, Office Manager at the PCLC.
Emily and I had the idea to start the video with emotional stories of real people and what their lives were like before they came through the doors of the PCLC. From there we transition into what the PCLC aims to do, the variety of services they offer, what the teachers are like, and what the impact has been on their students' lives. We wanted to tell the story of what this amazing organization has done and what it continues to do. I believe we accomplished our goal, and the client was absolutely thrilled by the finished products.
Final group shot outside the office. From left to right: Meghan Donegan, Account Management Intern; Alyssa Chavez, Art Direction Intern; Emily Strange, Production Intern; John MacDonald Jr, Production Intern; Evan Weber, Digital Marketing Intern; and Aidan Parker, Interactive Development Intern.