Facing History and Ourselves - New York Feed

New York Times, WNYC, and Facing History Host ‘Teach-In’

EmilyBlackie — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:10:28 +0000

press_type:

In the News

May 9, 2012

A teach-in co-hosted by the New York Times’ SchoolBook, New York Public Radio (WNYC) and Facing History and Ourselves in New York Tuesday brought nearly 100 educators together to discuss key ways to integrate current events into classroom conversation. Called “How to Bring Tough Conversations into the Classroom,” the workshop was the culmination of “Neighborhood to Neighborhood,” a collaboration between Facing History and WNYC’s Radio Rookies and the Hive Learning Network that provided New York City public high school students with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world.

The workshop, held at WNYC’s Greene Space, included break out sessions facilitated by Facing History Program staff and a closing panel discussion featuring Chief Academic Officer of New York City’s Department of Education Shael Polakow-Suransky and Gillian Smith, the first principal of the Facing History School and current principal of August Martin High School.

Polakow-Suransky spoke about his success as a teacher using Facing History materials to bring historical issues to a contemporary classroom.

“It struck me then, and this was right at the beginning of my career, that when you create opportunity for an emotional connection between what you’re studying and the content, it doesn’t actually have to be current but it has to be alive,” he said.

Listen to a Shael Polakow-Suransky and Gillian Smith during the question and answer portion of the event and read about the event on the New York Times education blog SchoolBook.

Learn more about our work in New York.
Link:

Learn more about Facing History’s partnership with WNYC’s Radio Rookies and to watch the stories and see the connection questions.

Brian Lehrer Interviews New York Office Director

EmilyBlackie — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:19:58 +0000

press_type:

In the News

May 7, 2012

Ahead of tomorrow’s “Teach-In: How to Bring Tough Conversations into the Classroom,” Facing History and Ourselves New York office Director Peter Nelson sat down with Brian Lehrer of New York Public Radio (WNYC). In an interview on The Brian Lehrer Show, Nelson discussed tomorrow’s event and Facing History’s role in helping teachers bring difficult conversations into the classroom.

Listeners heard excerpts of recent student-produced stories from “Neighborhood to Neighborhood,” a collaboration between Facing History and WNYC’s Radio Rookies program. The project provided New York City public high school students with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world through the Facing History lens.

“This is in keeping with what Facing History has always believed,” Nelson told Lehrer. “Give students a chance to let their voice be heard, to have an investigation that is at least somewhat interest-based on their own part, and you’ll see some amazing things come forward in their investigation and in their learning.”

Listen to the full interview, “Bringing the World into the Classroom,” on The Brian Lehrer Show website.

Click here to learn about tomorrow’s “Teach-In.”

Learn more about our work in New York.

About Facing History's Partnership with Radio Rookies
Thanks to a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves has partnered with New York Public Radio's "Radio Rookies" to begin a new initiative that will link two New York City schools, Vanguard High School in Manhattan and the High School for Global Citizenship in Crown Heights, with the radio program, which provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. The collaboration is part of the new HIVE Learning Network NYC, which connects educators of cultural and learning institutions. The initiative helps teachers and administrators conceive of and create programs that integrate their areas of specialty with creative, digital projects. Click here to learn more.

‘New York Times’ Learning Network Blog Highlights Radio Rookies

EmilyBlackie — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:59:30 +0000

press_type:

In the News

May 1, 2012

The New York Times education blog, The Learning Network, has featured a pilot initiative between Facing History and Ourselves’ and New York Public Radio’s Radio Rookies program. The project, called “Neighborhood to Neighborhood,” provides New York City public high school students with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world through the Facing History lens.

As part of the initiative, educators from the New York area will gather next week to discuss how to be effective teachers when students’ “real life” intersects with their “school life.”

Read “How ‘Real’ Is Your Classroom? Bringing Students’ Lives and Voices Into School,” by Katherine Schulten, in the New York Times’ Learning Network blog.

Click here to learn more and to register for the educator workshop.

Learn more about our work in New York.

About Facing History's Partnership with Radio Rookies
Thanks to a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves has partnered with New York Public Radio's "Radio Rookies" to begin a new initiative that will link two New York City schools, Vanguard High School in Manhattan and the High School for Global Citizenship in Crown Heights, with the radio program, which provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. The collaboration is part of the new HIVE Learning Network NYC, which connects educators of cultural and learning institutions. The initiative helps teachers and administrators conceive of and create programs that integrate their areas of specialty with creative, digital projects. Click here to learn more.

Radio Rookies & Facing History: Neighborhood to Neighborhood

Nicky Enriquez — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:04:56 +0000

Radio Rookie:

(pronunciation: \'ra-de-?o\ \'ru?-ke\)

"City student who finds a voice and hones digital media skills."

Featured Stories

Facing History and WNYC Team Up to Produce Teen Journalists

At the heart of many Facing History and Ourselves lessons is one thing: an individual story. This year, 16 New York City public high school students embarked on a pilot project with Facing History and New York Public Radio’s Radio Rookies program to tell their own stories and the stories of their communities – on the air, as reporters, and in their own voices. More >>

How 'Real' is Your Classroom? Bringing Students' Lives and Voices into School

If you asked your students, “How much does your life in school intersect with your life outside school?” what do you think they’d say? Why? How well do you think you bring “the real world,” and students’ lives and voices, into your classroom — and what happens when you do?
Read More from the New York Times Learning Network Blog >>

In the News

"I Am Trayvon Martin"

“I was shocked to hear about what happened to Trayvon Martin, but I wasn't surprised.” Vincent Marrero is a sophomore at Vanguard High School and is a member of WNYC’s Radio Rookies program, which trains teenagers how to report on stories in their own lives and communities.

Watch Vincent's Report, "I Am Trayvon Martin" from the Hive Learning Network.

Student Projects

A Public Housing Education

14-year-old Winnie Guo moved into public housing on the Lower East Side 4 years ago.

She’s a serious student with dreams of being a lawyer, but Winnie finds that’s not what’s expected of kids that grow up where she is. Winnie thinks that most other young people that live in public housing aren’t like her. She wonders if the teenagers in her community have low expectations of themselves because of peer pressure or because society assumes they won’t thrive.
Watch the video >>

***************

Mind the Gap in Crown Heights

Four teenage girls, all new immigrants from the Caribbean, arrive at a high school in the heart of what was the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots 20 years ago.

As newcomers they know nothing of the long history of tension between the Black and Lubavitch Jewish communities in the neighborhood. They set out to try to educate themselves about a culture so different from their own, in the midst of stereotypes and misinformation about Jewish people.
Watch the video >>

***************

One Phone At A Time

The cell phone ban in New York City public schools has led to an underground economy and burgeoning businesses near schools with metal detectors.

Until recently, students at the High School for Global Citizenship left their phones at a local deli during the day—until it was robbed. Since then a community member has started a new business out of his van to store kids’ phones. Teenagers can pay $1 a day to pass their phones through the “Safe and Secure” van door. Three HSGC students report on how this new business is about more than just making money off the students at their school.
Watch the video >>

***************

Mother in Arms

Rookie Reporters Yun Mei and Ricardo Castro profile Aida, a mother who’s been working for years to make the neighborhood she grew up in safer for young people growing up now.

She and her best friend started a group called "Mothers and Fathers in Arms" to get other parents involved. Tragically, Aida’s son, Keith, was murdered three blocks from their home last October. Yun and Ricardo report on the aftermath of Keith’s death and find that despite losing her son, Aida is still fighting to keep her neighborhood safe for other kids. Watch the video >>

More About

Facing History New York

WYNC Radio Rookies

New York Times
and WNYC SchoolBook

Hive Learning Network

New Haven Academy: Infusing Facing History Throughout a Small School

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:07:01 +0000

April 27, 2012

For everyone to view

Teacher

012.jpg

Greg Baldwin & Meredith Gavrin at New Haven Academy

NEW HAVEN – As a young teacher looking for a job in 1995, Meredith Gavrin picked up the New York Times one day and read an article about 50 small schools recently opened in New York City. She sent a letter to each one on the list. She was called in for an interview at an innovative school called the Institute for Collaborative Education (I.C.E.). The day she went to meet with the principal, she sat in on a class of a first year teacher, Greg Baldwin. As she sat there, Gavrin had no inkling whether she would get the job – let alone that she would go on to marry Baldwin and open a high school with him.

Today, 17 years later, the couple is married with three kids and they run New Haven Academy, a small regional magnet high school in Connecticut that they founded in 2003. Baldwin, the school’s principal, roams the halls catching up with staff and students (he knows all 250 kids by name), managing schedules, and teaching once a week. Gavrin is program director, working to build the school’s partnerships with area colleges and universities as well as outside organizations like Facing History and Ourselves. Facing History, which Baldwin and Gavrin first encountered as New York City school teachers back in 1996, has been an educational partner for the school since its start. All New Haven Academy teachers attend Facing History workshops, and the organization’s curriculum and approach is evident throughout the school, from the small advisory networks to the Facing History resources used in the classrooms.

New Haven Academy was a founding member of Facing History’s Small School Network, which connects educators from around the globe to share resources and strategies for infusing Facing History into the curriculum and culture of schools with 500 or fewer students. This weekend, the network hosts a three-day conference in New York for educators in the eastern part of the U.S. The gathering will bring together 37 educators, administrators, and teachers from 17 schools across the East Coast as well as in Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. It comes on the heels of a similar retreat for West Coast educators held in Los Angeles this winter.

During the conference, educators will attend sessions on small school culture, Facing History content, and best practices. Attendees will visit the 9/11 Memorial and Tribute WTC Visitor Center, tour area schools, and hear a keynote address from an educator who was principal at a high school that faced the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

“There are a lot of reasons this gathering is exciting,” said David Levy, senior program associate in Facing History’s New York office and the co-director of the Small Schools Network. “The schools that will be represented are some of the schools that use Facing History the most and in the most creative and innovative ways. It’s a chance for the people who work in these schools to be with one another and to share best practices. It’s an opportunity to discuss their challenges and get feedback from folks who are doing similar types of work.”

Among the educators at the conference will be Gavrin, who will discuss her experiences working in – and starting – a small school.

When Gavrin began at I.C.E., her classroom was in the room next to Baldwin’s. As young teachers in a growing, innovative school, the two poured their energy and hearts into cultivating a school environment that encouraged educators to work together and across disciplines, and where student learning, development, and civic participation came first.

“There was inspirational stuff happening,” Gavrin said during an interview this fall at New Haven Academy. “We were really thinking about what makes a meaningful high school experience.”

Baldwin agreed. “We were able to experiment a lot and take creative approaches to assessment and curriculum,” he said.

While at I.C.E., the couple took their first Facing History educator workshop. “The way I described it to my colleagues was that Facing History gave me a language for what I wanted to teach and how to teach it,” Baldwin said. “It was like someone gave me a formal language for what we had been trying to teach and trying to design in the humanities.”

Soon, Gavrin and Baldwin’s conversations about teaching strategies and child development turned into dates. The couple was engaged a few years later and married in 1998. During their years at I.C.E., they saw firsthand the opportunities and challenges involved in starting a school. “You have a blank slate and nothing is set in stone. You get to create,” Baldwin said. “You get to ask, ‘Why do it this way?’”

In the summer of 1999, Baldwin and Gavrin moved to New Haven, Connecticut, with a plan to open their own urban, small school that would build on their experiences at I.C.E. and with Facing History. “We wanted to prepare all kids to be successful in college, to be active citizens, and to make thoughtful decisions about themselves and their communities,” Baldwin said. “We wanted a combination of academic rigor and the support of knowing kids well. Those two things don’t always go hand in hand.”

But opening a new school is difficult – both for the people trying to do it and for school districts. There is red tape and politics. There’s finding space and shoring up funds. It took longer than either Gavrin or Baldwin imagined, but in June of 2003, the New Haven school district approved their plan to open a public magnet high school.

That August, the school opened with an 8th grade, five full-time teachers, a secretary, and a security guard above a community health space. Nine years later, the school is in a new building, has a student body of 250, and includes grades nine through 12. There are 21 full-time teachers on staff and, since the first class graduated in 2007, every student that has walked away from New Haven Academy with a diploma has been accepted into at least one college – a statistic that is truly astounding in urban education today.

“What we’ve always said to our students here is, ‘We’re opting you in.’ Everyone is on this track. Everyone is going to put in an application somewhere,” Gavrin explained. At New Haven Academy, college preparation begins in the 9th grade and takes various forms: advising, structured class time to complete applications and financial aid forms, partnerships with area colleges and universities so that students can attend higher education classes for high school credit, and required job shadowing days and internships. “I hear stories all the time from teachers here who have said, ‘In my sophomore year of high school, I told my guidance counselor I wanted to go to college and they would say, oh you’re not college material,’” Gavrin said. “It’s like, ‘Who makes that decision for you? You make that decision for you.’”

Not all students are required to attend college, but every student must apply. “For me, [the college readiness process] has become a metaphor,” Baldwin said. “You have to be thoughtful and responsible and you have to take charge of what you want to do and why.”

There are other aspects of the New Haven Academy experience that set the school apart. Seniors take a course in the fall called Choosing to Participate, which encourages students to actively take part in their community. The class leads into the Social Action Project, during which 12th graders choose a local, national, or international issue and pursue research related to it. The class exhibits the projects shortly before graduation.

Facing History is infused throughout. All teachers at the school attend Facing History educator workshops. Ninth graders take Holocaust and Human Behavior, a fall seminar based on Facing History’s resource of the same name. Sophomores take a spring seminar that explores justice and communities in transition, with case studies on the Armenian Genocide, South Africa after apartheid, and Northern Ireland. Juniors take a year-long humanities course called Race and Membership.

And then there’s the way the Facing History approach influences school climate. “What does it mean to be a Facing History school?” Gavrin asked rhetorically. “It means the kids are really thoughtful in the way they make decisions, the way they talk to one another, the way they address difference and diversity, the way we recognize the actions we take and the alternatives that existed and,” she continued, invoking a quote from Robert F. Kennedy, “the ripple effects of our choices.”

***************

Read more about what life is like for New Haven Academy students.

Learn more about Facing History's work with small schools.

This article was written by Facing History’s Julia Rappaport. For questions or tips on what Facing History is doing in your community, email her at Julia_Rappaport@facing.org.

Voices from the Students

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:06:32 +0000

New Haven Academy

Zahrae, El-Hazimy, 18

El-Hazimy lives in New Haven and moved to the United States from Morocco at age seven. “New Haven Academy was my first choice,” she said. “I really liked that the teachers pay individual attention to each student.” Zahrae was attracted to the school by the college prep track and by the opportunity to do a Social Action Project. As a senior this year, she is doing hers on hunger and poverty worldwide. “I want to make a difference in the lives of kids everywhere who don’t have access to the same resources we have,” she said.

Joshua Sanchez, 17

Sanchez also lives in New Haven. He hopes to attend college next year and study electrical or computer engineering, a plan he finalized after his junior year internship with New Haven’s department of engineering. “This school is really supportive that you go to college, but it is also good because they realize that not everybody is fit for college, so they’ll help support you with that and find alternatives.”

Samantha Rosenbaum, 17

“I feel like a lot of people think globally, but there’s a lot going on locally,” said Rosenbaum, who lives in Derby, Connecticut. For her Senior Action Project, Rosenbaum, who wants to become a cake decorator and own her own bakery one day, combined her love of food and her interest in social activism. She worked at a local food shelter and then organized a food drive at school. “I think you need to start locally and do little things,” she said. “Those add up globally.”

Kelli Gibson, 17

When she reflects on her New Haven Academy experience, senior class president Gibson said that Holocaust and Human Behavior was her favorite course. It opened her eyes to the world around in her new ways and spurred her to participate in her school community. “I never learned about the Holocaust in all of my years in school until I came here,” she said. “This stuff is really happening and some people don’t even know. It made me want to get involved with student government and be an upstander in my community.”

New York Office Director on WNYC

EmilyBlackie — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:38:41 +0000

press_type:

In the News

April 12, 2012

In anticipation of the nationwide premiere of the new documentary film, BULLY, on Friday, April 13, Facing History and Ourselves New York office Director Peter Nelson recently spoke with WNYC, New York City's public radio station.

"In some ways, the question is, what do you do after the bullying incident has happened? Does the community respond powerfully or does the community say 'boys will be boys'?" Nelson told WNYC earlier today. "All these kind of expressions and acceptance are things we’d love the film to be party to changing."

Read and listen to the full interview on WNYC. (Facing History is first mentioned in minute 2:54).

Learn more about our work in New York.

Download our free study guide to the film and learn more about our work creating safe and engaging schools.

Facing History and WNYC Team Up to Produce Teen Journalists

Nicky Enriquez — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:43:00 +0000

April 10, 2012

For everyone to view

School

rookies3.JPG

Radio Rookies pose with their diplomas and WNYC's Sanda Htyte (right)

NEW YORK CITY – At the heart of many Facing History and Ourselves lessons is one thing: an individual story.

This year, 16 New York City public high school students embarked on a pilot project with Facing History and New York Public Radio’s Radio Rookies program to tell their own stories and the stories of their communities – on the air, as reporters, and in their own voices. Part of the HIVE Learning Network NYC, the project led the students on an intensive, three-month journalistic exploration of identity and membership.

Radio Rookies is a New York Public Radio (WNYC) initiative that provides teenagers with the tools and training needed to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. This fall, Radio Rookies partnered with Facing History in New York for “Neighborhood to Neighborhood,” a project in which students from two city high schools – Vanguard and the High School for Global Citizenship – met after school and on Saturdays to explore their communities and develop journalistic skills. The goal was to identify a story and tell it from a teen’s perspective – a voice rarely heard on radio or television news, or in newspapers or magazines.

The project kicked off in October, 2011, and continued over the course of the next few months as students worked with WNYC’s radio journalists and producers to build basic reporting skills. Students learned how to develop a story idea, use a recorder during an interview, and digitally edit audio. They focused on two New York City communities, Crown Heights and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where they spoke with residents, business owners, and fellow students. Over the course of the project, the students documented their ideas and research on a shared blog. This format allowed them to discuss their work online with each other and Radio Rookies and Facing History staff, use tools like the photo sharing website Flickr, and explore the online presence of various news media outlets.

Radio Rookie Vincent Marrero poses with WNYC's Courtney Stein at the "Neighborhood to Neighborhood" graduation

“We’re really trying to encourage young people to become engaged in what’s around them, in what affects their lives,” said Kaari Pitkin, senior producer at Radio Rookies. “We want them actively questioning their neighbors, what’s in front of them.”

In small teams, the students produced six finished pieces – audio/visual slideshows that ranged in topic from gun violence and stop-and-frisk policies, religious identity and stereotypes, life in public housing, and a creative alternative to one school’s no-cell phone policy.

The project officially ended in late February with a weeknight screening of the completed pieces and a “graduation” ceremony at WNYC’s headquarters on Varick Street.

“It gave me a chance to really just say what I feel about a certain situation,” Vincent Marrero, a sophomore at Vanguard High School, said while setting the studio up for the graduation. “I felt like I had a voice, like what I had to say mattered. I don’t think a lot of people get a chance to do that.” Marrero’s piece focuses on stop-and-frisk policies. As a student who was once stopped and frisked by a New York City police officer, he was interested in starting a conversation on the practice. “I wanted to know what other people think,” he said. “People were saying there had to be a better process to it. . . . the way stop and frisk was happening was making a lot of people uncomfortable. So we really tried to get out there, to interview and hear both sides. . . . Finding out what other people thought surprised me because not everyone felt the same way.”

At the graduation ceremony, the students cheered their peers’ work and celebrated with Rookies staff, family and friends, and representatives from the Facing History team. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Winnie Guo, whose slideshow is called “A Public Housing Education.” “There’s no class in school that asks you to learn through audio.”

“By going out into New York, into neighborhoods that are not necessarily their own, these students get a perspective on community, on their peers and experiences, and how that fits into a greater New York,” said Courtney Stein, associate producer at Radio Rookies.

Though the program has ended, the lessons learned and the stories produced will live on. After the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in March, Marrero’s “Stop and Frisk” piece was picked up by the Huffington Post and NPR. And on May 8, Facing History, in partnership with Radio Rookies and the New York Times’ SchoolBook, will host a teacher event at WNYC’s Greene Space for educators who want to think about using student voice in the classroom. Participants will see excerpts from “Neighborhood to Neighborhood” stories and Facing History staff will lead workshops and break out discussions on creative ways to bring the outside world into the classroom – and how to bring classrooms outside and into the world.

“Our hope is that these tools – interviewing, production, writing, reporting, editing – and these stories will be useful in the future for teachers,” said Stacy Abramson, director of operations and strategic partnerships in Facing History’s New York office. “Here you’ve got student-produced, student-voiced content that focuses on Facing History’s key themes and ideas.”

Facing History and Radio Rookies hope to partner again next year to bring another group of students through the “Neighborhood to Neighborhood” program.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to understand a slice of the real world – of a young person’s perspective in a city,” said Peter Nelson, director of Facing History’s New York office. “And it’s a learning opportunity for adults, who don’t have any idea how difficult it is for young people to have their voices heard.”

“I think a lot of people pay attention to this area, to media,” Marerro said before heading home from the graduation ceremony. “I think what we’re doing here is actually very important.”

***************

Learn more about our work in New York.

Support for The Neighborhood to Neighborhood Project comes from the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund, a collaborative fund started by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The New York Community Trust.

The Hive Learning Network is a community of civic and cultural institutions dedicated to transforming the learning landscape, and creating opportunities for youth to explore their interests in virtual and physical spaces. Through the Hive, youth will have multiple, continuous and connected opportunities to explore their intellectual and skill-based interests.

Facing History's Julia Rappaport wrote this article. For questions or tips on what Facing History is doing in your community, email her at Julia_Rappaport@facing.org

Huffington Post Features Facing History Student

EmilyBlackie — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:15:00 +0000

press_type:

In the News

March 23, 2012

WNYC’s Radio Rookie Vincent M., a Facing History and Ourselves student from Vanguard High School, was featured in the Huffington Post. His piece, “I am Trayvon Martin” aired locally last week on All Things Considered. His story covers the topic of ‘stop and frisk.’

About Facing History's Partnership with Radio Rookies
Thanks to a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves has partnered with New York Public Radio's "Radio Rookies" to begin a new initiative that will link two New York City schools, Vanguard High School in Manhattan and the High School for Global Citizenship in Crown Heights, with the radio program, which provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. The collaboration is part of the new HIVE Learning Network NYC, which connects educators of cultural and learning institutions. The initiative helps teachers and administrators conceive of and create programs that integrate their areas of specialty with creative, digital projects.

Read the article, "I Am Trayvon Martin" by Vincent M. in the Huffington Post.

Listen to WNYC Radio Rookies: I Am Trayvon Martin

EmilyBlackie — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:11:15 +0000

press_type:

Web Update

March 23, 2012

WNYC's Radio Rookies will air Facing History and Ourselves student Vincent M. from Vanguard High School's latest story titled "I am Trayvon Martin" locally on All Things Considered at 5:20 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. on 93.9FM and 820AM. The story is also posted on WNYC's website.

About Facing History's Partnership with Radio Rookies
Thanks to a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves has partnered with New York Public Radio's "Radio Rookies" to begin a new initiative that will link two New York City schools, Vanguard High School in Manhattan and the High School for Global Citizenship in Crown Heights, with the radio program, which provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities, and their world. The collaboration is part of the new HIVE Learning Network NYC, which connects educators of cultural and learning institutions. The initiative helps teachers and administrators conceive of and create programs that integrate their areas of specialty with creative, digital projects.