Programs
Student Ambassador Program
The CMP Student Ambassador program is designed for high schoolers interested in thinking critically about media, what we watch, and how it shapes our everyday lives and the world around us. As Ambassadors, students can start a CMP club in their local community, leading critical conversations around media and identity, with the chance to connect with other Ambassadors. Visit our Student Ambassador page to learn more:
Sound Off!
A tool kit for a student-led conversation about media, what it means and why it matters. Each discussion is centered around a specific keyword, media example or public figure, and can be used in classrooms, clubs or after school programs.
'I Too Am' Critical Makers Lab
The I Too Am Critical Makers Lab (CML) addresses pressing social needs around arts, media and entertainment education. The CML offers an extended learning and enrichment opportunity for 8-12th grade students from South LA schools. We meet weekly to facilitate youth participation in critical making projects revolving around questions of identity, community, and belonging. The lab is driven by a series of questions, asking youth to reflect on who they are and how they can represent themselves, their communities, and their stories. The program consists of a series of 6 thematic modules led by USC professors and USC student mentors. We are currently working with 4 local schools and one after school program, reaching approximately 185 middle and high school youth.
'I Too Am' Media Festival
The I Too Am Media Festival showcases media created by Los Angeles high school youth, and provides a platform for community reflection and discussion. With a focus on identities, these projects collectively consider visibility and invisibility in popular media, and the power of self- representation as a marker of belonging and reclaiming space. We hope to empower youth in the practice of storytelling as civic engagement. Most importantly, we want young people to harness the power of media in order to affirm who they are, who they hope to be, and envision the world they wish to inhabit.
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'I Too Am' Teens, Media Arts, Belonging
‘I Too Am’: Teens, Media Arts, & Belonging brings together faculty and students from Annenberg and Cinema’s Media Arts + Practice Division with teachers and students from three Los Angeles high schools, providing youth with critical and creative tools to share stories about identity and belonging in the face of transitions and displacement. Youth address the question: ‘what is my story?’ as it relates to place, race, and class, considering what it means to be an American, a Californian, an Angeleno, and part of a local community.
Field trips transport youth to varied geographic environs, asking them to reflect on the way place speaks to us based on our backgrounds, shaping who we are, and how we see our own communities through a new lens.
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CMP School Visits to USC
We welcome local Los Angeles youth to visit USC! Join us for a half-day of programming featuring Critical Media Project and its resources. Hear from USC students about applying to and attending college. See the USC campus up close with a student tour guide.
CMP in Los Angeles Schools
Through a course at USC Annenberg School for Communication–“Community Engagement and Service Learning”–USC undergraduate students visit local Los Angeles schools to teach media literacy using Critical Media Project. With a focus on popular media and culture, this peer-to-peer model meets students where they are and promotes classroom engagement.
If your school is interested in participating in this program or in using our curricular resources in your classroom, please contact us!
CMP Professional Development
Critical Media Project offers a range of Professional Development opportunities for teachers and administrators. We can come to your school or do a virtual session that features Critical Media Project resources, curriculum and special topics.
Contact us to for a tailor-made program for your organization and its people.
