The Younique Foundation has partnered with a group of Utah County high school students to produce a video that educates their peers about consent.
Karen Brown, community outreach manager for the Foundation, has been working for more than a year with English and business media production students in Nebo School District’s CAPS program (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) in Salem.
The purpose of the CAPS model is based in experiential, professional learning, says Amy Ewell, who oversees the Nebo CAPS program. CAPS is an example of how business and public education can partner to produce personalized learning experiences that educate the workforce of tomorrow.
Brown said the Foundation needed a video produced about what consent means; it needed to be a video that would speak specifically to high school students.
Last fall some 50 English students began working on scripts for the video, only after getting permission from their parents to work on the project. “This allowed the students to have conversations with their parents about consent, which is part of the education we wanted to happen,” Brown said.
English students provided a variety of video scripts. The students held a reader’s theater and performed the scripts in front of their peers and the Outreach Team selected the winning script. Digital media students then filmed and edited the video as their final project.
“Working with The Younique Foundation provided our students with the experiential opportunity to bring awareness to current and relevant issues,” Ewell said. “Our students have thoroughly enjoyed the creative process that this project gave them, as well as the mentorship they received.”
“The students did a wonderful job of following the direction we gave. Their video teaches that you can practice the principles of consent at an early age, and will be prepared to use those principles when you are older and need them.”
Brown said the students learned that consent is not just related to sexual encounters. It’s about everyday interaction. It’s about respecting others’ boundaries. And it’s about understanding permission.
The video will be posted on the Foundation’s Defend Innocence website (teen consent module) later this summer.