UC, Oyler students partner to tell Lower Price Hill stories
DMC project helps create pathway to higher education through CPS partnership
By Rebecca Schweitzer
As a leading urban public university, the University of Cincinnati cultivates opportunities for its students to engage with the community and connect with local neighborhoods. These connections are designed in part to create pathways to higher education that some students in Cincinnati Public Schools might otherwise not have envisioned.
In one such collaboration during fall semester, students in UC’s Digital Media Collaborative teamed with students from Oyler School to create a series of short documentaries about life in the community of Lower Price Hill, an urban Appalachian neighborhood located two miles west of downtown Cincinnati.
Offered through UC's College of Arts and Sciences, the course grouped students into teams to pursue stories that capture the essence of the community. Some of the films featured Santa Maria, a large non-profit serving the community; Incline Run, showcasing artwork of students from the West Side; a barber shop and its owner off State Street; and a teaching kitchen hosted by BLOC ministries.
“There is a need in the community that UC wants to fill,” said UC adjunct professor Frank O’Farrell said, who led the course.
Oyler, located in Lower Price Hill, offers a Community Learning Center with medical clinics, food programs and after school programs for students preschool through grade 12. The UC course was initially created as an interdisciplinary collaboration between film studies, Digital Media Collaborative, history, urban design and O’Farrell’s nonprofit group, Fourthwall Youth Studios.
Connor Kurek of Oyler School in Lower Price Hill
Connor Kurek, who has been working for the Community Learning Center Institute at Oyler for the past year and a half, has found this partnership to be a dream come true for his students.
“The more we can close the gap between college and high school, the more Oyler students we'll send to college to succeed,” Kurek said. “Programs and collaborations like this make the prospect of attending college less scary, more achievable and more reachable.
"This collaboration between UC and Oyler is also important because it gives my students the chance to experience something they otherwise might not be fully exposed to, therefore planting seeds in them for possible future passions or careers.”
Kurek added: “It's raising the bar for a more advanced, engaging and fun education, providing my students with a glimpse into the toughness but also the freedom of a creative college class. And it's important because it gives my students the chance to see that they have something to offer students 4-plus years older than them.”
UC students benefit equally from participating in the program, said Abbi Liette, a junior majoring in digital media and film studies.
“A lot of the students in our group have some film experience already, and I love that they enjoy it so much they are willing to take even more time out of their day to be a part of this project,” she said.
UC junior Abbi Liette participated in the documentary project.
"Living in and being a part of the Lower Price Hill community also gives them an inside eye on important stories and what it's really like to be a member of Lower Price Hill. They have a great eye for what some important stories could be, and I hope that being involved pushes them to continue with film.”
Liette says she has been inspired by this collaboration, because she has learned more about the Lower Price Hill by telling the stories of individuals who wish to build their community.
“This semester hasn’t been just about earning credits and a grade,” Liette said. “But about what we can do as storytellers and film makers to bring attention to the amazing community that is Lower Price Hill.”
UC film and media studies student Deja Shanks
Deja Shanks, a senior film and media studies student, worked with a group on a film covering Santa Maria Community Services—its financial literacy and high school equivalence courses, and youth addiction resources for local residents. Shanks also worked with a second team focused on Santa Maria’s First Time Mothers and Every Child Succeeds programs.
“For me, it is super important to highlight community resources who really take pride in strengthening and positioning their communities for continued success,” Shanks said. “This collaboration means that we get to showcase a resource center like Santa Maria and in return, know that there will be someone who will be affected by our collaboration with them and take steps to either volunteer their time or seek out resources that they probably didn’t know were available.”
Featured image at top: UC and Oyler School partnered to document stories of life in Lower Price Hill. Photo/Provided
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