Digital Storytelling
Workshop Lets Students Tell Their Story
Intensive workshop helps youths exiting
the foster care system to heal.
March 2, 2006
by Gail Matsunaga
“I thought it would be a good
experience for me, as well as [a chance to] get over some
of the issues in foster care that I had.”
So explains
Guardian Scholar Torhon Barnes — one of
11 scholars who took part in a January Digital Storytelling
workshop in Berkeley.
The special workshop is an intensive,
four-day program designed to facilitate the process of
emotional or psychological healing, said Jenny Vinopal,
director of the campus program established to support ambitious,
college-bound youths exiting the foster care system. Last
year, 10 Guardian
Scholars took part.
Funded by a gift from
the Stuart Foundation, the experience gave scholars an opportunity
to develop personal three-to-five-minute digital stories
using their own words, images and music.
For Barnes, a junior
majoring in child and adolescent studies, “it
was much better than I expected: it was like therapy. The
bonding, getting to know the other scholars more personally — as
well as getting to know myself better.”
‘It was intense
and stressful, but the trainers are skilled at pulling
out your story.’
Freshman pre-business administration
major Desiree Penland wanted to “keep it positive.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to show friends
and family how I feel, how grateful I am.
“I didn’t
want to have a sappy story, but it ended up being sappy
because that’s my life. It ended
up being more about my mother, and I would have liked the
focus to be more about the people in my life now,” said
Penland. “But, it came out really well.”
Unbeknownst
to her, Vinopal became the 12th participant in the workshop.
She had accompanied last year’s group,
but didn’t create her own story.
Being there for the students and taking part with the students
was not the same thing.
“It was intense and stressful, but the trainers are
skilled at pulling out your story,” said Vinopal. “For
me, it was a moment to relive my boat-person experience.
It does affect and shape who I am today.
“I did realize how much we had in common, rather than
differences. The students got to know me on a different level,
and I got to appreciate their hard work.”
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