The AUSD Digital Communications Internship (DCI) Chromebook Care Team created a video in December to convey an important message to the students and faculty of the Arcadia Schools: Chromebooks need to be taken care of. Led by co-executive producers juniors Melanie Mak and Naomi Silver, 12 DCI interns, Adele Ng, Alan Zhang, Derek Jing, Nick Marshall, Jack Wu, Jarrett Yip, Jeremy Du, Kelly Li, Sarah Wang, Seongwook Jang, Troy Nguyen, and Katie Wen, worked together to create the “Proper Chromebook Care and Tips” video. While the project saw major success and a significant decrease in Chromebook damages following its release, the students received another award for their efforts: the 2017 California Schools Public Relations Association (CalSPRA) “Award of Excellence” in CalSPRA’s Excellence in Communications program.

This award is the highest distinction in the Multimedia/Visual Communications category. “It’s more important now than ever that schools share our stories, to help parents connect with their children’s schools and to help taxpayers see how districts are spending their precious resources. CalSPRA’s Award of Excellence winners are at the top of their class, successfully building support for and creating an understanding of our public schools,” commended CalSPRA President Music Watson. DCI Founder Ryan Foran went on to say, “I am beyond proud of the job our students did on this project, and am grateful that CalSPRA recognized them for their very creative and important work. This was a major project that we spent a lot of time on, and more importantly, it will save our district money and afford more students access to Chromebooks and technology.”

When the district realized the number of repairs needed was much higher than anticipated for the Chromebooks distributed across the district, DCI was charged with the task of creating an informative but entertaining video to spread the word. “We needed to get the word to our students about a few simple but important tips and techniques that would reduce the number of repairs we were making to the Chromebooks,” explained AUSD Chief Technology Officer Scott Bramley. “I’ve seen the impressive work produced by DCI, and knew they would do a great job with this project.”

The interns were also recognized by Arcadia Mayor Tom Beck for their hard work and their CalSPRA “Award of Excellence” at the Arcadia City Council meeting on Apr. 4. The event saw each of the 14 interns receive the Mayor’s Certificate of Commendation and a pin bearing the symbol of the City of Arcadia.

Congratulations to all of the hardworking members of the AUSD DCI team, and keep up the outstanding work!

Photo courtesy of PENGCHI XIAO