The Bay Area Video Coalition's (BAVC) proposed Advanced Digital Pathways (ADP) project provides 150 underserved low-income 9-12 grade youths with 180 contact hours of activities in information technology (IT) to better prepare them to pursue careers in IT and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. ADP offers two full years of activities for youths from the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in the digital media technology segment of the IT field. Specifically, advanced application activities in video, web, animation, 3-D modeling, gaming, and audio are offered to youth participants. The project also involves 175 parents and caregivers, 40 educators, 40 companies, and 200 teenage peers through family technology nights, media productions projects, community outreach activities, and externships.
Intellectual Merit: The goal of ADP is to help prepare youths for education pathways in potential high growth, high-wage STEM and IT careers. These careers could be in fields where scientists use 3-D modeling animation to examine chemical structures in biotechnology or where educators create products that use video and interactive technologies to design web or DVD products. ADP takes youths far beyond developing PowerPoint presentations and sharing information via webcasts and video streaming to progressively richer and deeper experiences in digital IT. To help determine which activities to offer, ADP builds on lessons-learned from the current YouthLink project funded through the ITEST program. Results and findings from the YouthLink project show that youths want to participate in IT activities that might led to careers in IT and that an increasing number were interested in digital sound technologies. The PI used these findings to help develop a workplan that provides an advanced course of study through a variety of activities using local IT businesses and local universities. College credit will be offered for some of the IT activities. The PI has a leadership team with a strong track record for working with youth-based programs that will provide the requisite expertise needed to fully implement the project. ADP plans to provide youths with industry-level standards skill sets in a variety of digital IT related fields across multiple sectors such as biotechnology, media, entertainment, advertising, and education.
Broader impact: The proposed project recruits youths from the BAVC YouthLink program, Youth Radio, the Pacific News Services? Youth Outlook program, the Youth Media Council, and the Exploratorium. Multiple tracks will engage youths in research that enhances their ability to develop platforms through interactive environments and higher education immersions. Materials and facilities are readily available. Partners such as state and local government officials and education agencies have shown interest in using ADP as a model to help guide descisionmaking about IT tools and resources for schools and community efforts. National foundations such as MacArthur, Koret, Kellogg, and Stone have also shown interests in supporting ADP efforts. Parental involvement is required for youths who participate in the project through collaborative family projects, family technology nights, and hands-on workshops where parents help create an actual audio or technology product. The evaluation plan builds on the YouthLink project and dissemination will be handled through online outlets, refereed journals, and national conferences. The PI?s work with the Mayor?s office on workforce issues, with state officials on broadband task force issues, and university chancellor-level positions on scaling and sustainability of ADP, adds greatly to the development of a stronger infrastructure for IT in the San Francisco Bay Area.
