What Does Community Mean to YOU?

Around mid or late July all the ZeumMasters were introduced to a project we chose to participate in. The topic was community. It could be a specific community, school Community, ethnic Community, hobby Community etc and etc.

Since the project was about community, Michelle and I thought why not blog about our schools. Comparing them to see how similar and different they were, and adding photoshoped pictures too. Michelle goes to Lincoln, while i go to Balboa. The schools project didn't work out, since Michelle went on a trip to Boston for awhile. I couldn't write a blog about Lincoln since i don't know much about the school, and I can't compare schools with just Balboa, so we changed the project to a video interview about community.

Our project is about peoples perspectives of community, and their definition of "community." We basically had to interview people from Zeum and people from different areas to get different perspectives from different people. We interviewed Paul, Sammi, Traci, Monique, Michelle Fisher, Michelle(this girl from the library), My friend Diane, and Ryan.

When we were done interviewing people, I had to upload all the files onto my computer and out of my camera. I had to edit the video and everything. It was really fun though, because i like editing videos anyways. so it was all good. Michelle helped with the layout, so it could be pretty. Avia helped me with the layout a bit a couple days before michelle got back from Boston, but the computer froze and i never got to save my work. that was kinda lame. yeah....but i learned that you gotta save almost every 5 minutes, just in case! =]]]]

The questions that i asked were pretty simple and to the point. I asked three questions, and they were. What comes to mind when you hear the word community? What does community mean to you? and What community are you apart of? The answer were similar and different at some points. The answers were surprising, in a way. Because all the answers were similar and i thought it would probably be different.

The fun part of this project was interviewing everyone and editing the video. I think the most challenging thing about the project was the fact that the computer froze and i had to redo it. still lame!

The finished project turned out good. i saved to my e-mail, but i'm gonna try to save it to a dvd. viewing the video from downloading the attachment off of my e-mail kinda went wrong, because the computer made it really small.

TAH DAH!

Why Zeum?

Finally, I, Lilian Fernando, am creating a blog post. It's taken me the whole summer to actually settle on what I should blog about. I've finally decided on TALKING ABOUT THE BENEFITS we ZeumMasters, the teens working the floors of Zeum, get from participating in the internship program. It's NOT YOUR TYPICAL TEENAGE JOB. It's not just a thing to do for the money. It's unpredictable, fun, and nurturing.

Imagine a hands-on MUSEUM FOR VISITORS OF ANY AGE, OF ANY GENERATION. A museum that can change a kid's childhood by opening the door to endless possiblities in the areas of visual and media arts; a place that can help a family bond while creating clay figures, and where parents or kids can discover that THEY CAN STEP OUT OF THEIR BOX and perform on our production stages. It sounds FAR FROM ORTHODOX OR TYPICAL, right? Those are just some of the things that are happening at Zeum every day.

Now imagine being able to EXPERIENCE A FAMILY BONDING at a set, creating a clay animation movie that you taught them how to do. Imagine recording a little five year-old singing, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', standing at center-stage all by herself. And WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO BE THERE when a couple, celebrating their 50th anniversary, become experts at using Photoshop. As a ZeumMaster, those are just some of the things I've been lucky enough to be a part of; BET YOU'RE JEALOUS NOW.

But of course this place is not facilitated by teens alone; in almost every room, you might find the older-looking staff member. That staff member is the 'Educator'. Our EDUCATORS help make sure that rooms are running smoothly. Beyond that, they HELP OUR VOICES BE HEARD. They encourage individuality, they encourage us to develop our interests and talents, and THEY ENCOURAGE US to show ourselves off. This summer, we have been given the opportunity to work on projects, with the aid of an Educator, that will be in a show, that our parents are invited to, at the end of the summer. Each ZeumMaster is creating a project within the realms of visual and media arts. A majority of us are working with Video Production and Clay Animation, so NEVER THINK THAT WE ARE INCAPABLE of answering questions in the Clay Animation Studio, or on the Production Stages.

So, if you become a ZeumMaster, you get to work with people of all ages, you get to see kids overcome their 'safe-zone', and you are encouraged, by the people you work with, to create projects that express you using visual and media arts.

COOL.