Meet the Filmmaker...Omar Cyrille

Urban Arts Board of Directors MediaLab Team

New York, NY

About Me: Hello fellow philanthropists! We are members of the Urban Arts Partnership Board of Directors. Each year, members of the Board form teams to fundraise for important summer arts-integrated education projects. Our project and passion is the MediaLab program, which connects students from low-income NYC public high schools to vital social issues through advanced training in filmmaking, digital editing and professional-level production and promotion. Please see the project page for much more information about MediaLab. With your help, we can reach our goal of $7,000 and make the summer 2010 advanced MediaLab program possible! Sincerely, Lindsey Cashman, Elissa Doyle, Tina Imm, Sabry Mohideen, Heather Moosnick, and Neel Parekh

Urban Arts Partnership (http://www.urbanarts.org/) serves students in Title I (high-poverty) public schools across all five boroughs of New York City. Of the 1.3 million students in the NYC public school system, nearly 15% drop out, only roughly 60% go on to eventually graduate, and within this pool, multiple studies and personal accounts suggest that graduates are not prepared for the rigors of post-secondary education and competitive career paths. The MediaLab program provides advanced media training to low-income high school students from districts across New York City. In addition to having little opportunity to receive this kind of intensive training, students in these high-poverty schools have few chances to raise their awareness of serious and immediate social concerns and to develop action plans to respond to them. During the summer months, these students also have limited options for structured, constructive programming to fill their free time. Based out of Urban Arts Partnership’s state-of-the-art media lab, the summer media activist project connects students to vital social issues through advanced training in filmmaking, digital editing and professional-level production and promotion. Funds raised will ensure that students will work with experienced and dedicated teaching artists and professional equipment. The MediaLab Summer 2010 session will impact the lives of 30 students from 5 high-poverty schools across the city, in addition to those of their families, friends, and communities.

go to project page