The value of tackling "real world" projects in school is being realized for a group of students at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler.

In September, the school's Digital Media class was recruited to create 14 videos to showcase the different Red River Technical Vocational Area (RRTVA) programs.

(L-R) Digital Media Teacher, Keith Bially, and students Sam Harder, Peter Enns, Arlen Peters, and Rylan Thomas. Not Shown - Reagan Schmidt (Supplied photo)

The project took them on the road to conduct interviews and record videos at various school locations, including Roseau Valley School in Dominion City, W.C. Miller Collegiate, Morden Collegiate, Morris School, Northlands Parkway Collegiate, and GVC. The students then took the time to edit their video and piece their work together until the final product was done.

The videos will be shown on school monitors and websites as well as the RRTVA website. They will allow parents, students & our community an opportunity to explore the many great programs the RRTVA has to offer.

GVC Digital Media Teacher, Keith Bially says it was great to see the students take this on as an option. "A lot of times we do projects at school and they're picking what they want to create their video on. It's a whole different side of things when you get a request from outside and they have to meet the goals of a contract."

Bially says the students showed a lot of passion through their work and the skills they needed to use, and it was neat to see them use those skills in a real-world setting.

"It was cool to see that all the videos were all about different programs, and were all at different locations, but at the same time still having the same overall fingerprint on all of it," says student Arlen Peters. He adds it was also valuable to see that the skills you learn in school, you can actually make a career out of it.

RRTVA Program Services Coordinator, Lane Curry says it was exciting to see the finished products, and how well they were done. "In a minute and a half to 3-minute videos, I really like how the students encapsulated views from both sides. . . In the end, they were so professionally done, and to know that it was done by students, it was great."

"It was a long project and it was good, and I really enjoyed doing it," said Digital Media student Sam Harder. "It felt really good to finish the last one."

To view the videos created by the GVC Digital Media students, click here.