Activity #7

2014 Page High School “Teens for Jeans” Video

2/7/14 - 2/9/14

10 hrs 

Service & Creativity (10 hrs)

Outcome 1 was reached because my skill at filmmaking was needed to create a video that would encourage students at Page to participate in the student council’s “Teen for Jeans” service contest. I learned more about my skill and how to get better at it in the process. Because I worked together with the student council members featured in the video to decide the theming and concept for the video, I reached Outcome 4. Outcome 6 was reached because “Teens for Jeans” was a service activity that allowed students to donate new and used jeans to kids across the county who needed them. This is an issue of global significance, as there are children all over the world in need of clothes, food, etc.

All over my county, there are kids in need of clothes, food, shelter, and homes. The student council at Page High School decided to help support those kids needing clothes, specifically jeans, by starting this campaign called “Teens for Jeans.” It’s purpose was to garner donations of new and used jeans for these kids from our students and faculty. When I noticed that there was a lack of publicity for this campaign, I stepped in and volunteered to create a video that  would promote “Teens for Jeans” and would be shared with the school via my YouTube page. I am not a member of the student council, but I knew the members well, and was happy to help them with this project. I wanted to accompany the uplifting theme of the video with a unanimously uplifting song, so I chose “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. 

When thinking about the global implications of a campaign such as this, it is important to remember that people all over the world suffer from poverty, and many people I am close friends with probably experience it as well. It makes me feel very thankful I have the family I do, a family who can provide me with the things I need to not only survive, but thrive in today’s world. Without them, I would never have been able to start my hobby of filmmaking and make a video like this at all. The philosophical thought that occurred to me during the filming of this video was how I came from a setting of poverty in Russia and was brought to a successful family in America. Without the family I have now, I could have been one of the people “Teens for Jeans” is in existence for in the first place. While holding my nice, expensive camera to film this video, I realized that I was supporting a cause that could have been my life if my parents hadn’t discovered me in that foster home across the Atlantic Ocean seventeen years ago. I already knew that I should be thankful for what I have, but this video reminded me that I should be extra thankful I have the family I have.

A link to the video can be found here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf74hU-0QxY