Panasonic Corporation of North America, through its Office of Corporate Social Responsibility, donated 20 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 cameras to the summer Film Academy of the Abbott Leadership Institute Youth Media Symposium (YMS) at Rutgers University–Newark last month. The total approximate retail value of the donation is $8,000, about $400 per camera.
Founded in 2002, ALI endeavors to increase meaningful civic engagement among parents, youth, and community stakeholders to improve educational outcomes for Newark’s children. In 2006, ALI extended its mission to include the development of advocacy and technical media skills in young people through the YMS summer and afterschool program. The program allows students to develop their voices through the prism of social justice. It also helps them to develop a variety of media skills like filmmaking, photography, journalism, and social media to tell their own stories through their personal perspectives.
With instruction from professionals like Ayana Morris, an Express Newark resident and owner of Leopard Stripes Productions, YMS productions have received critical acclaim. Last year, the students brought home the Newark International Film Festival’s “Best Youth Series” award. In 2017, they clinched the “Best Youth Film” award.
Prior to the donation, more than a dozen students in the summer Film Academy had to share two camcorders. “Now, each student operates his or her own camera for an even more rewarding hands-on experience,” stated Kaleena Berryman, ALI’s executive director. “This contribution to our mission to develop a generation of community storytellers and leaders is a game changer.”
The Film Academy students raved about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300. “Its singular lens has 24x zoom (25-600mm) with full zoom range,” commented Frankie Walls, a YMS alumna and current teacher’s assistant. This makes Walls’s fourth summer in the program. The Newark resident, who attended high school at West Nottingham Academy, a boarding school in Maryland, studies film at Ithaca College.
“These are good, high-quality cameras,” said Rabi’ah Hayes, a fifth-year veteran of YMS and a rising senior who is home-schooled. She noted that the cameras, which are capable of 4K recording, are the best they have worked with.
While many of the students aspire to be the next Jordan Peele or Ava DuVernay, some are content to just learn the mechanics of the camera. “I want to be an actor,” West Side High rising freshman Atayveya Heath shared, “but I also want to know how to work a camera.” This is Heath’s first summer in YMS. She is one of five students in the summer Film Academy who graduated from the Middle School YMS Academy at Belmont Runyon Elementary School.
“It is an honor to provide students of the Abbott Leadership Institute Youth Media Symposium with our Panasonic LUMIX cameras. The ALI’s exploration of diverse topics, including educational equity, helps foster important community conversations. We hope this contribution supports the continued development of a generation of storytellers and leaders,” said Alejandra Ceja, executive director of the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility and Panasonic Foundation. This is the first time PNA has made a donation of this kind to Rutgers University.
