Documenting Grant Impact with Video Case Studies

with CCS Rural Student Career & College Readiness

May 17, 2021 by Megan

In our world, folks often speak to the importance of moving the needle, measuring the impact of investing in marketing. In a similar way, documenting the impact of grant-funded initiatives is important and often a requirement of the award itself. At Rogue Heart, we believe that video is a uniquely compelling and versatile way of fulfilling that need, when it comes to sharing qualitative or quantitative results… documentary-style production is well suited to support academic achievements and to share measurable impact of initiatives and research with an authentic, curious, and celebratory lens.

We had the opportunity to exercise this belief with two SCC faculty in 2020; Andrea Reid (English department and grant coordinator) and Angela Rasmussen (Teaching & Learning Center coordinator and grant facilitator), who led a four-year grant-funded CCS/College Spark partnership, called Collaboration for Rural Student College and Career Readiness. Andrea and Angela’s project focused on strengthening student transitions from high school to college and careers, by engaging the expertise of English, Math, and counseling faculty from SCC, SFCC, and five rural high schools to initiate pilot programs tailored to the unique needs of their respective students.

While the grant aimed to bolster overall college and career readiness culture, due to the constraints of time and access with the impending news of COVID-19, we ultimately told the story of the grant impacts through a singular case study at Riverside High School (located in Chatteroy, WA), while leaning on foundational interviews from CCS faculty to speak to the broader intent and overall findings over the course of the four year grant.

The grant program was extensive and far-reaching in its ambitions, and many of the students reported that guest speaker visits and presentations that the grant helped to fund were the most  impactful in helping them decide on their chosen path after high school. It was inspiring to see that students were being empowered to make independent and ambitious choices, and take  advantage of desirable exposure and experience opportunities as they defined their own futures. Ultimately, we captured the classroom video and photos we needed to support this project just one week before our world shut down, in March of 2020.

Videos like this are a valuable tool for the funding source and the researchers and research participants alike, to celebrate the work completed and more broadly share the results. It is a joy to be part of documenting these accomplishments and enabling broader audiences to access these stories of impact.

Community Colleges of Spokane are poised to serve and represent 43 school districts, inclusive of 63 high schools, many of which are rural and may not include exposure to the variety of career and higher education paths available in our region, or more importantly – as the grant-sponsored work uncovered – the schools may not foster a college-going culture. Hopefully, having a video to showcase the results of their grant-funded work will make the findings and inspiration more accessible to other districts, that other students and the faculty who care about their success may continue to benefit from the work completed. Congrats to all involved!

Megan Kennedy

Written By Megan

With over 20 years of video production experience, Megan invests heart and mind into every project, from directing and editing PSA campaigns, to producing complex human interest documentaries, to developing extensive digital and multimedia campaigns. She also leads the team’s photography services, specializing in crafted portraiture as well as creative and conceptual imagery for marketing. She is dedicated to community stewardship and placemaking, and her commitment to projects that make a difference guides Rogue Heart in its growth.

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