Filming for the future

Installing water tanks, bird watching, building orchards, composting and creating worm farms – it sounds like the work of a wildlife conservation team, but these are all tasks that Bachelor of Communication students were involved in last year – and all within the local community.

The group of students volunteered their time, making a significant impact on local school communities and increasing children’s knowledge of sustainability through the Alive! project with the assistance of the Hawkesbury Environment Network and the University’s Office of Sustainability.

The Alive! project involved students forming teams which were assigned to local schools where they acted as both mentors and film-makers, creating documentaries about a sustainable project undertaken on school grounds. In February, the documentaries were presented at the Hawkesbury Youth Conference.

Kaitlin Peek, a Bachelor of Communications student due to graduate in April, volunteered her time to the project. “As well as being part of a group creating a documentary, my other main role was acting as the student coordinator for the project,” she says. “I organised my peers and helped get in touch with the schools and kept everyone on track with due dates and general support.”

The project provided the students with the real-world experience of shooting a documentary. The students learned how to overcome challenges on the job, such as finding new ways to film audio and video to make the project work.

Samantha Slatina, also due to graduate from her Bachelor of Communication degree in April, recommends student involvement in community projects. “You engage with communities, gain skills along the way – plus you are part of such a passionate and supportive team of people that you become inspired,” she explains.

The project was good for the students’ souls and for their future careers. “As part of my internship with Alive! I managed to get another internship with Channel 7, and for the past three months I have been working at Today Tonight,” says Kaitlin. “I think my experience with Alive! really helped with the transition from uni to working life.”

“The teacher from Bede Polding was so impressed with our work, he wants my team to come back and film more things, and is even writing us up some reference letters,” says Samantha.

While the UWS students gained valuable working experience, the school children learned important lessons about sustainable living. “I think they realised that with a good team and a strong vision anything is possible, and hopefully they will share their ideas from their projects with other communities beyond the Hawkesbury area,” says Samantha.