Firebaugh Students Honored for Producing Sheriff's Department Film

Lynwood, Calif. – Three Firebaugh students — Kimberly Garcia, Mario Millan and Mariela Cruz — were honored by the Lynwood Unified School District Board of Education and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Aug. 25 for producing a promotional video for the Sheriff’s Century Youth Activities League.

New Sheriff Jim McDonnell wanted a video featuring the Century Youth Activities League, which promotes constructive programs that teach teamwork and discipline to more than 250 children from South Los Angeles, Lynwood, Compton and South Gate. Since the department’s film crew was backed-logged with projects, the Century Sheriff’s Station in Lynwood contacted Lynwood Unified. After a call was made to Firebaugh video production instructor Rodney Conner, project was underway.

“I want to thank the Sheriff’s Department for giving our students the extraordinary opportunity to exhibit their talents and develop a quality product focused on such an integral program in our community,” said Lynwood Unified Superintendent Paul Gothold. “These real-world experiences are incredibly important in the development of our students so they are college- and career-ready.”

Conner did a field survey of the locations for the filming including the Century Youth Activities League Headquarters at 7901 S. Compton Ave., Los Angeles and a boxing gym the league uses at 7116 Makee Ave. He then supported the students in their effort to tell the story.

Conner, who has run the video production class at Firebaugh for the past four years, said, “this was the kind of project that would take a lot of extra time outside of school and I knew that these three students would go the extra mile to do a good job.”

The students spent several days in May filming and editing the three-minute video. There was added pressure as the 2014-15 school year was coming to a close; students were preparing for finals and one was getting set for graduation.

“It wasn’t a difficult project until the end when we were trying to edit down the video and add the music tracks in the background and we were near the deadline,” said Kimberly Garcia, 18, who graduated from Firebaugh in June. “It was hard when we were on deadline. It was crunch time.”

Garcia is using many of the skills she learned during the production class in college where she is studying to become a 911 dispatcher.

As part of the project, students interviewed Sheriff’s Sgt. Veronica de la Rosa, who served as the narrator. They also interviewed program participants and leaders to provide a complete picture of the work being done at the league.

Developing the storyline and editing video is something that Mario Millan, 16, can see himself doing in a career.

“It was really fun to do a project like this because it is something that I like to do,” said Millan, a junior. “I think this was a good exercise and experience because I want to make this a career.”

While Mariela Cruz, 16, is happy adding special effects to videos during the production stage, she finds most of her satisfaction when she is on-location.

“I really enjoy being behind the camera,” said Cruz, a junior. “The only scary part was when we were shooting the scenes with the kids playing soccer and the ball was flying near the camera.”

For the Board of Education, the video presentation shows the tremendous skills students are developing in the classroom.

“I am so proud of the professional-quality video our students produced for the Sheriff’s Department,” said Board of Education President Maria G. Lopez. “We know the tremendous abilities of our students, but it is such an honor when our community has the opportunity to see them.”

Video can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sExl3uyjG60