What’s The Story?
This year three WUHS Freshmen are joining ten other Vermont teens in educating others about important social justice issues.
“There are some people who think that living in Vermont is really the most sustainable thing to do because you’re living in nature, you’re connected to everyone. While living an urban life might actually be much more sustainable,” Mateo Bango, WUHS Freshman and What’s the Story VT participant said.
What’s The Story VT is a teen social action group, born from the Breadloaf school of English.
The program encourages Vermont teens to get involved in social activism by creating a 15-20 minute documentary to bring attention to an issue they are passionate about. Previous documentaries have been featured at a film festival in Waitsfield and presented for other audiences.
According to Ms. Fountain, high school English Teacher and What’s the Story VT mentor, the program was created because teachers wanted to empower their students to get involved in social activism.
“It’s cool to travel and work with these cameras and really get into that process of actually making a documentary,” Mateo said.
This year, Mateo is joined by fellow WUHS students, Oliver Szotts, and Sam Legget in the program.
“It’s something I really believe in,” Ms. Fountain said. “It’s really great to see kids following a passion and making a difference.
“We’re going around and interviewing a lot of people who live sustainably and who have maybe some preconcieved notions about sustainability,” Mateo said about the WUHS students’ project.
Early in the program, students break off into groups of 3-4 and choose an issue to focus on.
Other groups are working on documentaries about Native American history and culture, as well as the meat and cattle industry.
“This is project based learning at its finest. Students really have to learn to self direct,” Ms. Fountain said. “My group is looking at LGBTQ+ mental health issues, their goal is to educate educators.”
Mateo is passionate about his group’s project. “I think we all really care about climate change and what we can do to live sustainably. So of course it’s going to bring change about in our lives, we’ve learned so much already. I just really hope we can bring about some change in somebody else’s too. That would be the goal.”
Applications for next year’s program are open now to 7-12th graders from all over Vermont. The program includes monthly in person meetings or weekend retreats as well as weekly virtual meetings. You can find an application form on the What’s the Story VT website.
“If kids can get themselves there, it’s a really great free program funded by grants,” Ms. Fountain said.
Mateo says he would highly reccomend the program to other students.