Students from Margaret Rennix's Expos 20 course visited the Bok Learning Lab three times to prepare for their video capstone project. Our Learning Lab team supported students in the development of narrative storytelling on film and creating their media products, then hosted an event where the students came together to share their final videos.
Immigration has become an increasingly divisive topic in U.S. politics, as thousands of people fleeing violence and poverty in Central America have arrived at the nation’s border. While conversations about immigration tend to focus on its economic and cultural implications, the specific experiences of immigrants can get lost in the political shuffle. In this course, students engaged actively with how narratives of immigration are told and transformed, especially as individual experiences get processed into legal asylum cases.
Margaret Rennix’s Expos 20 students first visited the Learning Lab for a session where they developed "elevator pitches" for their research. This workshop exposed the students to the technology and format of their eventual capstone project. In late November, students returned to film their capstone projects in the Learning Lab’s small studio. Over the course of the day, all 29 students filmed multiple takes over 15 minute appointments. After filming was complete, Learning Lab media staff created edited videos for each student. In December, the students attended a capstone event in the Learning Lab. Their individual videos were loaded onto laptops with headphones, and students took turns visiting each station, watching the videos, and talking with their peers about their projects.