On May 6th, more than $18,000 was donated to the Digital Arts Technology Academy and its students through awards, grants, and scholarships at the 2014 Digicom Student Film Festival, which took place in the Palm Springs High School auditorium. Many other elementary, middle, and high schools from the Palm Springs Unified School District also earned sizable donations for their students and programs.
The Digicom event was the culmination of many months of hard work by students, teachers, and Digicom staff throughout the district. DATA students worked on projects in a variety of categories, from short narratives and documentaries to autobiographies and animations. In total, 18 projects from DATA Digital Storytelling were featured in Digicom.
Additionally, the 4th collaboration between DATA Digital Imaging and Rio Vista Elementary school students was premiered at the event. The Rio Vista project allows DATA Di students to work collaboratively with elementary school students by revising, producing, and animating original work. The collaboration earned a $2,000 grant towards a celebration "fiesta" for the DATA and Rio Vista students and teachers.
Many DATA DS projects came from the 10th grade Media Literacy class, where Digicom's David Vogel spent several months working regularly with students to develop short autobiographical films. David helped students to develop and revise their projects, searching for clarity, focus, and meaning.
Among the awards and honors, 6 DATA seniors were given scholarships for college:
DATA Digicom scholarship recipients
Photo by Richard Lui/The Desert Sun)
Jarelle Balanzat (UCLA): $2500
Sara Lopez (UCB): $2500
Melissa Medina: $2500
Clarissa Cisneros (CSUDH): $1500
Genevieve Knight (CSUSB): $1000
Gabrielle Knight (CSUSB): $1000
All of the DATA student work is featured on the Digicom website and the Digicom 2014 DATA DS Vimeo Channel.