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The Media & Policy Center has received a significant grant to begin work on America's Family Farmers.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have received California Greenworks' Environmental Leaders Award for their "...outstanding work in raising awareness for environmental sustainability through the PBS series Edens Lost & Found."

The first in a series of Edens Lost & Found Town Hall Meetings was held in Philadelphia early in 2008, and was broadcast by WHYY (Philadelphia PBS) in April. More details and excerpts from the broadcast are available here.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have been elected Ashoka Fellows and Purpose Prize Fellows.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell win First and Third Prizes in NAAEE Environmental Film Festival.

Media & Policy Center: If I Were President

In Development

The mission of If I Were President is to tap into and encourage the idealism, creativity, and passion of our younger citizens. The project will address the issues of why young people have often not voted in past elections; explore successful strategies to get them engaged in voting and subsequent civic engagement; provide a specific strategy for using film production techniques for teachers to help students identify, research and present major campaign issues; and provide a forum for students and young members of the military throughout the country (and world) to express their opinions in the form of what each would do "if I were President."

The project will consist of four components:

  • An "If I Were President" Essay Contest inviting high school and college students from across the country and young members of the armed forces to submit entries into a national competition on what they would do if they were elected President of the United States. Entries may be in written, video or audio form, and may include essays, poetry, rap, graphics, and art.  Entries will be featured on the project web site. A distinguished panel of advisors including artists, writers, high school teachers, college professors, historians, government officials, and students themselves will review the submissions. Winning entries will be filmed and incorporated into the special PBS broadcast.
  • A one or two hour broadcast special produced by Wiland-Bell, that will provide an overview of successful strategies by schools and nonprofit organizations to engage students and encourage them to vote, supported by an interactive educational web site and book.
  • An educational outreach campaign to extend the mission of the broadcast to educators, students and parents around the country.
  • A screen education project, to be conducted by the American Film Institute's Screen Education Center, empowering at-risk and other high school students to create short films communicating their understanding of the primary issues in the 2008 national elections. The students' work will be reviewed by AFI mentor filmmakers and education specialists, and will be featured on the AFI and IIWP web sites. The students' work and the teaching strategies surrounding it, can serve as a resource for educators and their students around the country.
  • A series of fifty $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to winning high school entries.

Fostering citizenship and democracy is a cornerstone of the foundation of public broadcasting. Its fundamental purpose is to provide programs that inform, enlighten and enrich the public. At no time in America's history has the need been stronger for public broadcasting to live up to its mission, and at no time in public broadcasting's history have the opportunities to do so, been greater. If I Were President will provide an ideal means to connect public television viewers, public radio listeners, educators, elected officials and students, providing information and resources on the importance of young people voting as part of their civic engagement and efforts to make their communities, and this country, a better place to live.

Other resources for If I Were President: