Seeking Intern (with paid stipend) to work on research, web development/marketing and promotion for film about contemplation and neuroscience in an at-risk school. Immediate Start!
My film CHANGING MINDS AT CONCORD HIGH SCHOOL just premiered to a sold out house at the Rubin Museum where it received a standing ovation. During the talk-back , Congressman Tim Ryan, author of A MINDFUL NATION invited me to screen the film in Washington and discuss how to get the curriculum I designed into at-risk high schools.
I’m an ITP graduate with an interest in using technology to inform and enhance mindfulness and social and emotional learning in school. For the last decade, I’ve been working with at-risk kids integrating film production into school curriculum to make learning more real and relevant. During that time, I became keenly aware of the challenges my students were facing: learning differences, attentional and emotional issues and coping with chronic academic failure.
I knew from personal experience that meditation could provide the students with a technique to work with their minds and I was keenly interested in the scientific research that was starting to confirm the benefits. I reached out to scientists working in the field of contemplative research (from Harvard, Portland State and Hunter College) and with their input, designed a program that integrated both the science and meditation into the school day. The science class studied the brain and the latest contemplative research.
Inspired by their understanding of mindfulness and the concept of neuroplasticity, the students in the science class assisted Tracy Dennis, Ph.D., our lead scientist, as research assistants
in a school-wide experiment.
Partnering with award-winning filmmaker Peter Barton (former Tisch film professor) we filmed the entire process.
Our goals: To get the film out to parents, students and educators. And to create replicable curriculum that’s proven effective and integrate it into at-risk high schools.
