The phone rang on a Wednesday. A technology company was sponsoring a competition for student filmmakers in connection with the Bentonville Film Festival (BFF). The objective: To tell a three-minute story aligned with the festival’s mission of championing women and diversity. The challenge: Capture it all using only a smartphone and tablet.
A small group of Arkansas students at Bentonville High School leapt at the opportunity to put their skills to the test in a real-world scenario. By the next day, they’d developed their storyboards, had the equipment in hand and were out shooting video. By Saturday, they were presenting their short film, “Boys Club,” to BFF founder Geena Davis, a panel of judges and festival goers. Not only did they win, but they’ll soon be presenting their film in New York City.
This is just one example why Bentonville Public Schools – in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation – launched the Ignite Professional Studies program in the fall of 2015. We set out to change the conversation about how schools prepare students for the opportunities in our community and beyond. We realized that connecting our high school juniors and seniors with relevant learning experiences, in collaboration with regional businesses, nonprofits and industry professionals, was the best form of engagement.
Ignite started last year as an opportunity for 15 students interested in computer programming and IT solutions to plug in directly with local organizations. Two of our seniors were embedded with RevUnit, a Bentonville-based consumer insights company, to assist with client projects. The company was so impressed with their capabilities that one student was hired full-time immediately following graduation, and the other interns while attending the University of Arkansas.
This year, we’ve grown Ignite to include 100 high school juniors and seniors, focusing on the areas of computer and IT solutions; medical and health sciences; creative arts and production; and construction professions and management. In these tracks, students are applying content knowledge to help solve real-world challenges at area hospitals, graphic design agencies, computer programming companies, and construction sites – and they're earning six to 12 hours of college credit in the process. By embedding project-based experiences through partnerships with local companies, they’re also gaining valuable mentors, new industry perspectives and the core competencies required for success in today’s economy.
We set out to change the conversation about how schools prepare students for the opportunities in our community and beyond.
As amazing as the results have been already, we’re just beginning to scratch the surface with Ignite. Next year, we’re adding new tracks, and the long-term goal is to foster opportunities for students within all Ignite tracks through cross-pollination of projects. For example, students embedded in the medical field may need to call upon fellow classmates in IT to help solve a problem collaboratively.
Because Ignite is a successful model, our hope is that it will become the foundation on which all career and technical programs can be built into professional studies programs. We’re even beginning to partner with neighboring school districts to develop cooperative programming that provides our students, and theirs, with even more opportunities to engage in real and relevant learning.
We’re plugging into our region and, in the process, changing the perception of what career and technical education can be. This is as real as education can get – and that’s why it makes all the sense in the world.
