Stories from Cumberland University of North Texas Department of Media Arts

Stories from Cumberland follows the Summer 2019 Youth Media Lab as they work with the residents of Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home, a residential foster care facility in Denton, Texas.

Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. In this episode, the Cumberland residents learn these skills and prepare for two weeks of a high-impact media education!

Now that they knew about media literacy, the residents from Cumberland understood that they can, and do, make media on a regular basis. Preparing them to advocate for themselves in our increasingly mediated society, the Youth Media Lab teaching fellows gave them an even more advanced skillset. Follow along as the teens go from making movie trailers in an iPad app to staffing a whole TV studio!

Using the skills they were taught the week before, the Cumberland residents were broken into groups and given a week to produce their very own projects. There are no limits – except that they can’t show their faces – the story is theirs to tell!

After learning about media literacy and production for two whole weeks (during their summer vacation, no less!) the residents of Cumberland got to show off their hard work at a special screening held at Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home. This red carpet event had it all – posters, a projector, and even snacks!

The summer 2019 Youth Media Lab allowed Cumberland residents to develop life skills and the ability to more effectively communicate with other people, and the teaching fellows were given valuable teaching experience. In the final episode of Stories from Cumberland, professors Vickery and Carter, the Youth Media Lab teaching fellows, staff and residents of Cumberland reflect on the summer 2019 Youth Media Lab.