Skyline High School offers magnet programs starting in 10th grade. According to Skylines Website, magnets are programs geared towards students’ special interests and help them excel in the field they want to go into. There are four magnet programs offered : Communications and media (CMPP), business and marketing (BMIT), health and medicine (H and M), and technology and programming ( DTEP).
This fall, CMPP seniors are creating videos for 11 different local nonprofit organizations in hopes of promoting their missions and attracting potential donors and volunteers. According to the official CMPP website, this project was Established in 2012. Additionally the website notes “CMPP has worked with over one hundred nonprofit clients to bring their visions to reality through compelling digital videos and multimedia.”Ray Neiburger (23’), Ayla Dunbar (23’), and Kaitlyn Gastineau (23’) are working with Children’s Literacy Network. “Their purpose is to bring up literacy rates and basically make reading more accessible,” Gastineau says. According to childrensliteracynetwork.org, over 3,000 books are provided to schools annually and around 87% of students in participating classrooms find reading more enjoyable. “I really wanted to work with them because reading wasn’t always the easiest thing for me,” she continues, “I like how they make that a priority.”
This group is producing a video about the organization’s mission and services they provide to the community.
Liam McGlohon (23’) , Mason Lexen (23’), and this reporter (Maja Smith 23’) are working with Circling Back, a grassroots organization that was founded in the first half of 2022 to help provide homeless people and people struggling with housing insecurities in Washtenaw County a safe place to talk. “I chose circling back because, since it’s a growing organization, we had the potential to do more impactful work than with bigger organizations,” says McGlohon. Circling Back has their own art gallery in the basement of the church they meet at. This gallery is called Journey of Faith, it has been operating since they opened their doors in 2022. “I really enjoyed seeing their space and seeing their gallery” and “seeing all the amazing artwork the people in the organization created,” McGlohon continued. Circling Back also has a working kitchen, donation room, and things like sleeping mats and blankets for use. The group is creating three videos. Two are focused on the founder and co-founder of the organization and the third is focused on someone who benefits from the services Circling Back provides.
Maddie Robins (23’), Charlotte Perry (23’), and Maya Loomis (23’) are working with Corner Health Center. “The health services they provide are really interesting to me. These were not services I knew existed outside of things like planned parenthood,” Robins shared when asked why they wanted to work with this organization. “ I know that there are services that could help me and help other people that I know and that was very interesting to me,” Loomis added. This organization’s mission is to provide “judgment free and gender inclusive healthcare…to people aged 12-25 and then their children.” This student group is creating a 60 second video to attract clients and promote services they provide.
Cilla Racine (23’), El Myers (23’), and Gretel Ham (23’) are working with C.S.Mott’s Children Hospital. Their partnership is a little different because it is a year-long collaboration between CMPP students and the hospital. “We were given pre-filmed footage,” Myers said, making it slightly different to other groups’ experiences. “This particular organization’s mission I would personally phrase as telling patients stories and making new patient families feel more comfortable in the hospital,” Myers continued. Everyone in the group has either had siblings helped by MOTTS or was given services by them. “It had a personal connection to all of us,” they all shared. Myers is particularly excited “to talk with nurses who have worked in the hospital and feel passionately about sharing these kids stories” and help make an impact in patient lives.
Soren Nielson (23’), Mara Farmer (23’), and Saliou Sow (23’) are working with Fisher House Michigan. This program started in 1990 by Zachary Fisher and its purpose is to “to make sure veterans have a safe, free, accessible home when being treated at the VA,” said Farmer. The first Fisher House in Michigan opened only two years ago, welcoming its first guests in June of 2020. “It’s a really beautiful building,” said Farmer. All housing at Fisher House is free and near the VA, making it a home away from home “I think it’s really cool that they are creating a safe place for veterans and their families and working with them and their mental health” she went on to say. They are producing a 60 second video about the Fisher House Organization’s mission and services they provide.
Karis Robinson (23’) , Hannah Lucas (23’), Aurora Love (23’) , and Sophie Singleton (23’) are working with Girls Group. Girls group mission statement is to “empower young women to achieve emotional and economic self sufficiency by ensuring they graduate from high school and begin their college or career journeys.” This organization was founded in 2003 and is in many different states and high schools across the United States. Through this video project Girls Group hopes to spread awareness about their organization and how it is impacting young women in the community. This student group is creating a short video that promotes the organization and their mission as well as the services they provide.
Aviviah Mitchell (23’), Zara Abston (23’), Rosbel Lebron (23’), and Willow Hayner (23’) are working with Live Zero Waste. “Live Zero Waste is fighting for a circular economy,” Abston said.“Instead of buying something,using it, and throwing it away; it would be buying something and reusing it consistently” explains Zara. Founded in 2015 this non-profit organization has collaborated with local restaurants like El Harissa and Zingermans. “ We went to El Harrisa and they were talking about all the different ways to reduce waste,” explains Abston,“ it was so inspiring.” Instead of focusing on things like recycling and veganism as a way to prevent food waste, “this was a whole different approach to sustainability,” said Abston. This group is creating a video about the circular economy in the United States and How Live Zero Waste is trying to combat that.
Durron Tate (23’), Ahmil Bond (23’), and Avelyn Bonner (23’) are working with Mentor2Youth. This organization takes a unique approach to improving behavior in adolescents. “I was interested in how they would solve problems with the metaphor of Chess,” explained Bonner. They serve many young “kings and queens” and, through mentorship and community, help improve school performance and behavior problems. “ I’m excited to meet the kids and actually see what they are struggling with,” they continued. One unique part of this organization is that the students that are a part of this program are all dealing with different issues and using chess as a way to teach them important life lessons is their main goal. This group’s video is meant to help recruit donors to Mentor2Youth.
Diya Gawande (23’) , Cassie Liske (23’), and Lily Kohn (23’) are working with Growing Forward Together. The video is about how the organization has “created a course and are trying to get it approved by AAPS.” The course is commonly referred to as “Trauma in Society.” The course is about “learning about trauma from a critical perspective,” says Kohn. Its main mission is to have schools teach students to “learn about trauma as a social studies subject and how it affects the brain and our society,” they continued. The organization let this group look at “a prototype of the textbook that they are creating themselves.” This student group is creating a quick PSA video to recruit clients that may want to take the Trauma and Society Course.
Elly Stolrew (23’), Caroline Theiss (23’), and Julia Sitz (23’) are working with SOS Community Services. This organization’s main goal is to “be a source of support for families or just anyone in need,” says Theiss. SOS Community Services has been providing important services to Washtenaw County since 1970. “We decided to work with this non-profit because we think that food insecurity is an issue that needs to be addressed in the community,” Sitz shared. This group is creating two videos one centered around volunteers at SOS community services and one on potential donors.
Sara Zubieta (23’), Morgan Nalepa (23’), Greta Chappell-Lakin (23’), and Job Munongo (23’) are working with The Stewardship Network. One unique experience this group had while filming was they “got some help from Mr. Burgerino to get some aerial shots of the environment” and ended up filming “this really cool overview shot that showed a person walking through the forest,” explains Zubieta. “ I think that their mission is to better the earth,” she says. “You can volunteer through them directly but they also are like the matchmaker of volunteer places so if there’s a certain thing that would really work for your lifestyle they will bring you to the right organization.” This group is creating a 60 second video on the Stewardship Network and their mission statement.
According to Skyline Administration, Magnet week at Skyline this school year is the week of January 16th-20th, and 9th grade students can learn about our 4 magnet programs in their core classes and during Skytime. Ninth graders can apply to the magnet programs via google form starting January 13th, 2023 and they are due no later than January 27th, 2023 at 3:00 pm. The lottery will be held on Tuesday January 31st with 60 slots per magnet available.
You can find all of these groups clients videos put up on this page throughout this school year:
https://sites.google.com/aaps.k12.mi.us/smg/clients-portfolio
