Success Story: Angelisa

Angelisa is currently a 17-year-old senior at Gateway High School, a charter school in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. She first heard about BAVC's Digital Pathways(DP) program in 2007 from a former DP student and friend. While her initial interest in the program revolved around getting an internship (students are placed in internships at the end of their training), she quickly developed a passion for storytelling as she began to think critically about the media that surrounded her, and became engaged in the creative process of making media.

At the end of her training, the BAVC staff encouraged Angelisa to do a kind of "independent study" internship, supporting her as she took an advanced video production course and produced a short, experimental video called "Equanimity." She would say of the internship experience, "That internship taught me almost everything I now know about Final Cut Pro and using a video camera and equipment. During that time it was my junior year which was fairly difficult, and being in Digital Pathways helped me learn to balance my time while having lots on my plate. I'm also comfortable talking with strangers because of interviews... It's improved my communication skills, not to mention introduced me to all the other students who shared/still share resources with me (connections are really helpful)."

Recognizing her creativity, dedication, and ever-growing communication skills,  BAVC asked Angelisa to become a Teaching Assistant for our 2008/09 Digital Pathways cohort.

Angelisa would say of her TA-ship, "When you're in the position of a teacher rather than a student, you are able to see the development of a story that isn't yours and are able to  give advice because you have experienced it and created it personally."

 Angelisa has used the income from her teaching assistant position to pay for her college applications (all 11 of them!). She hopes to either study video production, anthropology, human biology and/or education at UC San Diego or UC Santa Cruz.