21st Century Atlanta Scholar Lyntoria Newton leaves us with vivid visuals

This past summer the Center for Learning and Leadership welcomed summer interns who come from APS’ 21st Century Atlanta Scholar Program. Our own communications office has had the benefit of two interns in particular, and would love to show off some of their work this week. First off we’d like to tell you a little bit about Lyntoria Newton, a graduate of Carver’s School of the Arts. As part of her studies at Hampshire College in film production, Newton worked with the APS Media Production team of Scott King and Armon Moore to enhance her skill set.

She recently completed an assigned summer project that you can view above. Newton’s assignment was to edit existing content shot last May for an upcoming Grady High event. With the Media Production team’s assistance, Newton had complete creative control with real-world deadlines to contend with.

“This summer I was given the footage from Grady High School’s annual fashion show Urban Couture,” Newton said.” The footage included the start to finish process of the show, including the senior designers creating outfits, fitting and measuring the models, rehearsals, dress rehearsals, the show itself as well as a few interviews with participants in between. My assignment was to edit a week of footage down to a five minute video. During the editing stages of the Urban Couture Preshow video, I found that editing is a process where one must be willing to compromise because every moment cannot be used in the final product. Other times when I had questions about programs like Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Motion I knew that Mr. Armon and Mr. Scott would happily answer them and provide me with applicable examples.”

In addition, Newton has participated in in-house media productions that have included the Leadership Retreat and Principals’ Academy as well as interviews, script-writing and editing. She has also gained great understanding of the advanced apparatus and ENG (Electronic News Gathering) techniques we use to produce APS content. APS Media Production Manager Scott King  believes Newton will be ahead of the academic curve upon her return to Hampshire College.

“As a Film Production major at Hampshire College, participating in this internship has been very beneficial to me,” Newton said. “It has allotted me the opportunity to be very hands-on, which is crucial when it comes to learning any project that is journalism/film production related. When I joined the media production team as an intern, I was encouraged to ‘jump right in’ and help with whatever project was at hand. My task often ranged from holding a boom mic, driving an interview, producing a video, conducting a voiceover, or editing footage. The ultimate goal of both Scott King and Armon Moore was to make sure I was developing the trial and error know-how that is not always possible to build in a traditional classroom setting.”

Thanks for the hard work and the vivid visuals, Lyntoria!

The 21st Century Atlanta Scholars helps low-income, high performing students with significant academic potential apply to and attend the best colleges in the United States with the support of generous financial aid packages. The goal for Atlanta is fundamentally shifting from helping students go to college to helping students graduate from college. Research shows that college graduates have $500,000 greater earning potential than those who attend but do not graduate from college. The average graduation rate at participating 21st Century Atlanta Scholar partner colleges is 94% versus an average college completion rate of 34 percent for Atlanta Public School (APS) graduates. Therefore, students in the 21st Century Atlanta Scholars are three times more likely to graduate from college than APS graduates.