Two Elon staff members will travel to Namibia July 5-17 to shoot video footage for a documentary project about the problem of AIDS in Africa. The trip will be one of the first steps in a project involving Elon’s initial group of Periclean Scholars.
Tom Arcaro, professor of sociology and director of Project Pericles at Elon, and Jay McMerty, senior video producer, will travel to Namibia to tape background footage to be used in two video documentaries that will be central to the issue of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the problem selected by Elon’s first group of Periclean Scholars as their long-term project.
A select group of students are chosen as Periclean Scholars each year. They take a specially designed course during their sophomore, junior and senior years, providing them with the tools necessary to become effective citizens not only in their local communities, but in the larger world.
These students, working with Burlington/Alamance Schools officials, will research the recommended and required material for state middle school students learning about Africa. The Periclean Scholars will then work with Elon faculty and students in both middle grades education and communications classes to design a script for a general video about Africa that will be made available to the public school system for classroom use.
A second video will focus directly on the problem of HIV/AIDS, and will be aimed at high school students. A similar process will be used by the Periclean Scholars to research the topic, gather information and work with other students and faculty to produce the video.
Arcaro says the documentaries will provide Periclean Scholars with an abundance of real world learning opportunities. “The second project, especially, is more delicate, because of the subject matter and the special needs of the local and state boards of education, and thus the Periclean Scholars will be exposed to the politics inherent in presenting this kind of subject matter,” says Arcaro. “The script for this documentary will be informed by (the Periclean Scholars’) research on HIV/AIDS, but the exact phrasing of the narration will be critically examined from a variety of perspectives.”
Arcaro anticipates a second trip to Namibia to gather more footage and interviews, in January 2004, will include two Periclean Scholars. This fall, the group will have the responsibility of creating a selection process to choose two of their own to make the trip.
“I want the students to have the experience of deciding and communicating reasonable and fair selection criteria, assessing interest letters and putting forward a recommendation,” Arcaro says. “They will have to go through the exercise of deciding how to make a very important choice.”
During their July visit to Namibia, Arcaro and McMerty plan to gather footage of typical homes, schools, businesses and national landmarks. They have also received cooperation from the Namibian Film Commission, which has assisted in arranging interviews with citizens and government officials. Arcaro and McMerty also plan to share video editing and computer technology with schools and the Catholic AIDS Action, one of the leading relief agencies in the country.
Elon is one of 10 colleges and universities nationwide to join Project Pericles, an initiative sponsored by the Eugene Lang Foundation, which challenges institutions to provide a learning experience that will “instill in students an abiding and active sense of social responsibility and civic concern.”
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