Supercast

Kathy Taylor:
Aubrey is amazing. She is helping us with warm-ups. She's helping us design activities to do during our practice time, but not just for sports, because she helps with academics.

Aubrey Allen:
Students are the best part of my job.

Anthony Godfrey:
The students are always the best part of our job.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Born with cerebral palsy, she has risen above challenges all her life and inspired countless people, friends, family, and even total strangers along the way. On this episode of the Supercast, we invite you to listen closely as Oquirrh Hills Middle School para-educator, Aubrey Allen, talks about earning a bachelor's and master's degree in recreational therapy, leading her to a career as a classroom aide and as a Unified Sports coach. Aubrey doesn't let her disorder, which impacts movement, muscle tone, and speech, get in the way of making her dreams come true and, in the process, supporting others with special needs around her. You won't want to miss Aubrey's powerful message. Subtitles and a transcript for this podcast are available on our website.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at Oquirrh Hills Middle School talking with Aubrey Allen. Aubrey, thank you for taking time to talk with us.

Aubrey Allen:
Thank you so much. I'm excited.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm really happy to meet you and talk with you. I think I've met you before, but it's been a little while since we've talked.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your job here at Oquirrh Hills Middle School.

Aubrey Allen:
I am a para-educator and one of our special educators. I'm here at Oquirrh Hills, and I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
You love being the aide here in the class, the para-professional.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you love most about this job?

Aubrey Allen:
I love being able to work with and support the kids. The students are definitely the best part of my job.

Anthony Godfrey:
The students are always the best part of our jobs.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful. Who's your favorite student? I'm just kidding. I'm not making you say or answer that question. Now you are a highly qualified individual. Tell me about your degrees and the work that you do outside of Oquirrh Hills.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah, though I have a bachelor's degree in math, my master’s degree is recreational therapy, and now I'm a certified recreational therapist. I also manage a nonprofit called Adaptive Arena, and we offer free adaptive sports and activities for people of all abilities. I love working there, too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I understand that you also are an advocate for those with disabilities on social media.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah, yeah. I started a social media platform for the video about my day-to-day life just to try to make others aware of what life can be like having a disability.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those listening, tell them about your disability.

Aubrey Allen:
I have cerebral palsy, and I have a moderate case of it. It affects the way I talk. The end is just how my body moves and how my muscles work.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've heard you're a big inspiration to those around you here at the school. What do you think about that?

Aubrey Allen:
I just try to be positive and uplift everyone. I think having my disability has given me a lot of pushback. There are a lot of things in life that are challenging for everyone, and you can either let them know who you are or try your best to write about your challenges and just be happy and positive.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're a great example of rising above your challenges, and I'm sure that your students really look to you for that positivity. I've only met you a couple of times, but you've been extremely positive. You light up, you're so friendly both times, and you really stand out that way. So I appreciate the positivity and the positivity you're bringing into the lives of the students and the people you work with.

Aubrey Allen:
That means so much to me. I really do try my best to overcome my challenges.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me more about what happens at the Adaptive Arena.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah, it's more like a rec center for people with disabilities. We offer different activities. We have a cheer program and a wheelchair basketball program, and the cool thing about us is we let everyone play. So if somebody in a wheelchair has a brother who is not in a wheelchair, we put the brother in a wheelchair, too, and now they can play wheelchair basketball, or whatever together, and families really like that because typically kids with disabilities can't play on the same team as their siblings otherwise. So I just love that we can do well with different types of families and kids with all different abilities.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it really is inclusive. Anyone can participate.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And if you are playing with others who are in a wheelchair and you don't need a wheelchair, you're going to get a wheelchair.

Aubrey Allen:
Yes, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
That seems fair. Now what is your favorite sport? I won't make you tell me who your favorite student is, but what's your favorite sport?

Aubrey Allen:
I think my favorite is wheelchair basketball because everyone gets so into it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's fast-paced.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah, we do wheelchair basketball every Saturday morning, and we just have a blast.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's your favorite and everyone else’s also.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. More with Aubrey Allen and her colleagues.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
They are out on the job in the rain, sleet, snow, ice, and in the sunshine, as Jordan School District students navigate their way to and from school every day. We are truly grateful for our city crossing guards, always vigilant and looking out for students to ensure everyone's safety. Because they work so hard protecting our kids, let's give those crossing guards a hand. If you're driving near or around schools, slow down, pay attention, watch for students and staff, and follow instructions from the school crossing guards and know our cities are always looking to hire crossing guards. If you like kids and need some flexible hours, contact your local city and apply to be a crossing guard today. Together, let's make this a safe and successful school year.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice do you have for folks about how to make sure that people with disabilities in their lives feel included and noticed and a part of things?

Aubrey Allen:
Yes, that’s a great question. I remember when I was growing up and it was so easy to feel invisible because I had a disability. The people that stood out to me the most and that had the most impact on my life are the people who treated me like they were just anybody else and not only that, but they were comfortable talking to me and asking what I needed and if they should be aware of anything. So I think that is very important. Individual people do know that people with disabilities, they often times know they just want to be treated and included like everyone else.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Just treat them like you treat everyone else. And I love that you said the people that have had an impact on your life are the ones who said, "How can I help you?" And just treated you like everyone else, asked you questions, and talked with you.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk with some of the folks that you work with. Introduce yourself.

Kathy Taylor:
Hi, I'm Kathy Taylor and I am the teacher of the classroom that Aubrey is working in right now and we love Aubrey. She brings so much to our class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what it's like getting to work with Aubrey day in and day out.

Kathy Taylor:
Well, she's always positive.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's obvious. That’s obvious.

Kathy Taylor:
Even when sometimes it doesn't feel like it's a positive day. Some days are up and some days are down, but Aubrey is always up. Aubrey's expertise with the recreational therapy has been great. We are a Unified Sports school meaning . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
You're a premier Unified Sports school. You're an award-winning Unified Sports school. Talk about that.

Kathy Taylor:
So Unified Sports is a program with Special Olympics where we are participating in team sports with our students that have disabilities and with their peers. Peers and our students with disabilities all play on the same team. And for us, that's a huge deal because a lot of times our students are not on teams. Or parents, they go and watch a lot of sibling games, or they watch a lot of their friends play sports. But a lot of our kids don't play sports on their own. So this gives them the opportunity to be on a team, to get that camaraderie, feel like what competition is like, feel experience at the tournament. And Aubrey has brought so much to that. She is our coach basically. I don't know if you've gone through all the trainings yet. I'm still working on those, too. But our official coaches, hands down Aubrey is amazing in that capacity with the sports. She is helping us with warm-ups. She's helping us design activities to do during our practice times that will help us work on specific skills. And she's able to adapt things for the kids that aren't able to do what everybody else does, and they can still interact with their peers. So it's been amazing having Aubrey, but not just for sports because she helps with academics. She goes to classes with kids. She helps us with their personal care. She does it all. She does it all, and she does it with grace, and she does it with humor, and she is a pleasure to work with.

Anthony Godfrey:
I would think it's pretty hard to be negative around Aubrey or be down on yourself. She doesn't let that happen. The incandescence keeps everyone from getting off the path, I guess.

Kathy Taylor:
She's very positive and the kids have responded really well to her. They really enjoy her.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk with the principal. Introduce yourself and tell us about Aubrey. You contacted me and let me know that we really ought to come talk with her.

Lisa Jackson:
I did. I did. I'm Lisa Jackson, Oquirrh Hills principal. When we interviewed Aubrey, after Aubrey left the room, we all looked at each other and said, "How can we make this work because she needs to be part of our team here at Oquirrh Hills.” When we called for her references at the Adaptive Arena, they said the same thing, “She's amazing. Everything she does. She's just highly qualified. She's kind. She's motivated.” I interact with Aubrey in the halls a lot because she's walking these kids to and from class, and she understands what they need. She's receptive to their needs. And I think the coolest thing about it is just having our kiddos who do have disabilities, who have some struggles, being able to see just what they can accomplish in life and how successful they can be. And I think seeing Aubrey every day and seeing how successful she is just gives them motivation to follow in her footsteps and do some of the things she's done.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're not very convincing when you say you can't do it and Aubrey's in the room and she's bringing the energy and demonstrating that “yes, you can. You absolutely can.”

Lisa Jackson:
You can do it with a smile.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Lisa Jackson:
Right. It might be hard, but you can do it. I think she also inspires all of the kids, though. Like, I feel like they didn't necessarily know, even our peer tutors didn't know what to expect when you meet Aubrey and you're not sure, you've never met Aubrey before. You're not sure. A lot of people don't have experience with somebody that has cerebral palsy. And so it's been great. I think it's an inspiration to them, too, because you're knowledgeable. You're educated. You're well spoken. And when you say they need to do something, you mean business. So, like, it's, you know, there's a level of respect that Aubrey has earned among all the kids and the adults, really.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm inspired hearing about what you do and meeting you again. What do you like to do when you're not at the Adaptive Arena or here at school?

Aubrey Allen:
Oh, man. I spent a lot of time with my family. I have two younger brothers who I helped raise because there’s a big age gap between them. There are things that my family and I work out every day. So I'm at the gym a lot. I feel like and then I like to hike and bike and just be outside.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're very active sounds like.

Aubrey Allen:
Yeah.

Anthony Godrey:
I sit in a lot of meetings. I do email. But, you know, I try to get as much pleasure from that as I can.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's a real pleasure meeting you. Thank you for everything you're doing, for inspiring me, the people that you work with and the students that you serve. You're awesome. Thank you.

Aubrey Allen:
Thank you for your time and opportunity.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you. And thank you both for talking with us.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you will do today!” We'll see you out there.

Transcription coming soon.

Transcription coming soon.

Student:
Now that we've won, we're going to be building some things that we can put in a box that they'll send up to the edge of space and we'll measure the amount that these different data storage units are going to... like what just happens to them.

Student:
It'll reach 60,000 feet

Student:
And we are going to test how the radiation and pressure there affects the electronics.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. You could say they are hitting new heights as winners of a NASA Aerospace Engineering contest. On this episode of the Supercast, we head to JATC North to hear how four students will be working with NASA TechRise engineers over the next 18 months to bring an experiment they proposed to life. They'll be working on an experiment with real-world applications that will be launched using NASA's high-altitude balloons, a dream come true for these incredibly talented students.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at the JATC North campus to talk with Amber Saffen and some of her students about the Aerospace Engineering program. Amber, thanks for talking with us today.

Amber Saffen:
Yeah, welcome. Welcome to our program.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me how you and your students are now involved with NASA.

Amber Saffen:
Yes, so our CTE coordinator right at the beginning of the school year sent an email our way that NASA has a competition called NASA TechRise where students can write proposals for an experiment to be sent up into the stratosphere, and so as part of my program, I was like, "Hey, we're the aerospace program. That seems pretty dang relevant." So fresh to the program, my students got in and they did some research and they put together some proposals of some things that useful experiments they thought would be good to send up there. And then just a couple months ago, I got an email that one of those proposals had been accepted. And so I'm here with four of my students and they wrote a proposal and now NASA will be working with them once a week for the next 18 weeks to build the proposal. Gave them, is going to provide $1,500 for them to buy the supplies, is going to help them learn how to do it, and then that will be shipped back to be go up on the WorldView balloon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's meet your students and have them describe to me what this experiment is all about. Introduce yourselves, tell us what grade you're in, and what school you're from.

Student:
All right. My name is Blake Bigler. I'm a senior at Mountain Ridge High School.

Student:
My name is Canyon Bullock, and I'm a senior at Herriman High School.

Student:
My name is Mason Rice, and I'm also a senior at Mountain Ridge High School.

Student:
My name is Zach Hull, and I'm a senior at Riverton High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Someone tell me about this experiment, what's involved exactly. What will you learn from being a part of this?

Student:
Yeah, we created this proposal like six months ago, but basically what it is, is we designed an experiment where we are testing how data storage is affected and how it works in space with like radiation and lower pressure. So now that we've won, we're going to be building some things that we can put in a box that they'll send up to the edge of space and we'll measure the amount that these different data storage units are going to, like what just happens to them.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, how do you send this up? How far up does it go? What is all that going to look like?

Student:
So what we will be doing is we will be taking different data storage types like hard drives, disk drives, flash drives, things like that, and we will put them in a box, which we will attach to a weather balloon.

Student:
It'll reach 60,000 feet and then once it reaches 60,000 feet then it'll gradually go down where they can pick up all the tests and then take them back to the facility.

Student:
And we are going to test how the radiation and pressure there affects the electronics.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's the theory? What do you think might happen once you send that information up? I assume you'll send a zip drive up as well, a couple of floppy disks.

Never mind. No, don't worry about it.

Student:
I don't know that a five and a quarter floppy would fit in the box.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, it's going to be that small.

Student:
It's not particularly large.

Anthony Godfrey:
That makes sense.

Student:
We have to use a SATA size disk drive because a standard five and a quarter would just be too much.

Student:
We think we're going to put different amounts of insulation around the drives. So we're thinking different materials.

Student:
Lead, aluminum, foil, things like that.

Student:
So we're just trying to stop the radiation from reaching the data encoding because otherwise the radiation can scramble that and then your data that you send up there is no longer useful.

Anthony Godfrey:
So is it the radiation and the altitude? You're measuring the impact of both on data storage. Is that right?

Student:
Yes. It will mostly be the radiation because that's what we'll be getting through into the storage. But the pressure will also be being tested on the other parts of the experiment.

Anthony Godfrey:
I understand they're going to send you some money for materials to conduct this experiment. Somebody want to speak to that?

Student:
On the subject of materials, we're currently in a storage crisis. Things like RAM and NVMe drives and things like that are all way more expensive, like three times, four times. So great timing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, if you change your mind, I do have some of the large and small floppy disks available in my home. And if you really want to take your experiment to the next level, just let me know. We can include that. Tell me what interested you in being part of the Aerospace Engineering Program to begin with.

Student:
Well, for me, my dad's a pilot at Delta, so I've always been kind of interested in aviation. And I also am pretty decent at math and science, and I like those things, I'd say. So I thought that I'd try to put them together and do aerospace engineering.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm not sure I would be surprised that he's really decent, but I appreciate the humility. So that's pretty cool. So have you traveled lots of great places with those pilot flight benefits of your dad's?

Student:
Yeah, I've traveled some pretty cool places.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you want to be a pilot, or what do you want to do with your knowledge and with your science and math skills?

Student:
Well, that's kind of what this class is doing for me, is I'm trying to figure out if this is something that I'd want to do. And I think that this opportunity to work with NASA has definitely, like, it's got me a lot more excited about aerospace engineering, and it's, a lot more interested in this now for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. How about for you? Why did you decide to be part of this class?

Student:
I've been doing, like, taking engineering programs at JTEC for a while now, and I just thought that aerospace would be the next one. And I was like, that's pretty interesting, but it's been my favorite one so far. And I think it's been really cool learning about things that fly, and rocket ships, and airplanes, and everything that flies. I think it's all really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
What other engineering classes have you taken here?

Student:
Engineering Principles, CAD Mechanical Design, Architecture, Civil Engineering. I was going to do Robotics, but I opted out on that one. But this is the coolest one so far.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. How about you?

Student:
I always wanted to be an engineer, but I didn't know which kind. This is my first engineering JTEC class. And I decided to go with aerospace because I really like NASA and SpaceX, and I think that planes and rocket ships are really cool. So I just decided to take this class, and this class inspired me to start my, well, not start, but I'm going to start my degree in mechanical engineering with an aerospace emphasis at BYU.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for other engineering programs, the sky's the limit, but the sky's not the limit for aerospace.

Student:
No, not for this one.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you want to continue your studies at BYU, ideally.

Student:
Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. Well, I'm glad you're getting a start here. That's awesome. And it's great that you've been able to narrow that already to aerospace. How about you?

Student:
So I'm actually in aerospace and robotics right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
So flying robots is really your thing.

Student:
Yes. So I've always found both interesting. Like, I would take apart toys to figure out how they work, and rockets are just awesome. There's no doubt about it. But I took these classes because it's just fun for me.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long before robots are our overlords?

Student:
Ideally, never.

Anthony Godfrey:
But let's be realistic. We're just here on the podcast. When's it going to happen?

Student:
If it's going to happen, it will be within the next century, I believe.

Anthony Godfrey:
I like how you leave the door open that it might not happen, but at least we've got a few years left. All right. Tell me, why did you decide to teach aerospace engineering? And what's your background? And how exciting is it for you that your students are now working with NASA?

Amber Saffen:
It's super, super, super exciting. I mean, as a teacher, all I want to do is get opportunities put in front of students so they can fly and do what they want to do. I got my degree in engineering education, and I took over. This is my first year teaching the aerospace course. I took over from Noel Schick last year. She had a good program going through PLTW, and I wasn't able to continue with them this year, though we might jump back on. And so I was looking at any opportunities I had to connect, get into this. I was already teaching the drone course, and I started teaching that because there was a need for it. I saw that there was this huge industry blowing up that we were starting to get college degrees, and I thought, we need to get this in the high school. And that’s my job is, is to connect students. So I started teaching that in partner with Noel's aerospace class, and then when she left the school, I took over aerospace. And so any connection I can make with NASA or anything like that, we have a big aerospace industry here in Utah, with Boeing here. And so there's a lot of opportunities. We have some great college programs, like Mason mentioned, BYU. A lot of the universities have pretty good aerospace programs. So I just want to make sure students get a head start, figure out if that's what they want to do, and then have a head up into getting into those programs so they can work where they want to work.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Mason, you nodded your head a couple of times. Are there specific opportunities that career-wise that you're interested in?

Student:
I would really like to work for either NASA or Lockheed Martin, personally. But that's just because I like the planes and the ships that they make, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lockheed Martin, listen up. Lock in right now. Now's your big chance to grab him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more with the students and teacher who are working with NASA TechRise engineers.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
In Jordan School District, communicating and connecting with parents is really important, and that's why we're very excited about ParentSquare. ParentSquare has replaced Skylert as the District's new communication platform. With ParentSquare, you'll receive all district and school communication via email, text, and/or the app based on your preference. All messages can be translated to your preferred home language indicated in Skyward, and it takes less than a minute to set up your notification preferences. You can use the ParentSquare app on any device. The app is available at parentsquare.com/sign-in. We look forward to connecting with you through ParentSquare.

Female Voice:
This is from the NASA TechRise announcement.

Male Voice:
“We know that taking on the challenge to innovate and explore is never easy. It takes hard work and courage to share your ideas, and we applaud everyone who submitted a NASA TechRise proposal. From all of us here at WorldView, thank you for participating. We cannot wait to see the final experiments fly.”

Amber Saffen:
. . . link on their website, and some of you might recognize this little paper right here on “The Effects of Low Space Radiation on Electronic Devices and Data Storage.” So . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us what it was like to hear that your experiment had been approved by NASA. Talk us through that scene.

Student:
I just couldn't believe it was totally unexpected. You'll hear all of us say this, but we didn't even recognize it was our project at first because we weren't expecting it. It had been so long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. You submitted it. You'd kind of forgotten about it. Now all of a sudden you're working with NASA.

Student:
First I saw what was it that Zack jumped up in his chair, and I was like, "Oh, that's so cool. He won the project." And I was like, "Wait a minute."

Anthony Godfrey:
"Wait a minute. I'm part of that.”

Student:
I'm part of that. That's so cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's great.

Student:
Oh yeah. I was also really shocked. I didn't recognize the project. I saw that all these random people were there, so I was like, "Oh, so somebody must have won. And then they pulled it up, and I was like, "Oh my goodness. That's our project. I never would have thought in a million years that would be us."

Amber Saffen:
I found out about a month before I was allowed to tell them, and I found out while I was at a conference in Nashville, and I was looking at my computer, I got the email. I immediately pulled up an email to tell them all and then read the next line that said, "Do not let students and parents know yet," and realized I had to be sworn to secrecy for a month. And that was, it was not easy. I was just so excited for them, and I wasn't allowed to tell anybody.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, NASA also told me that I have to wait for—no, I'm just kidding. Tell me, what do you hope that students gain from a program like this? Because this is the time of year where people are choosing classes for the coming year, and this may not be the first one that pops to mind. And they may wonder, "Oh, am I ready for this? Do I have the math and science skills to be able to be part of it?" What would you say to those considering this, and what do you hope is the outcome for students who are in your class?

Amber Saffen:
Well, the number one thing that I try to teach, and we try to teach here at the engineering department at the JATC, is critical thinking and problem solving. Because no matter what you go into, those are skills that if you develop them, it's going to help you. So even if my students don't go into aerospace, I'm not mad, but I know that the experiences they got here in teamwork and troubleshooting and problem solving and critical thinking, no matter what they go into, that's going to be helpful for them. And so, if I, you know, giving those connections and opportunities to students, if they can take it, and then also giving them those experiences, so if they go do something else, it's still beneficial. I see how much my students grow in a year working together and doing all these hard tasks we do in engineering. And they do. They grow, and it's just so awesome to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Aerospace engineering in particular, but engineering classes in general, are going to be changing a lot over time. And what you just described is exactly the type of education that we hope to be providing. That is problem solving, the sort of skills that you will be able to use no matter what comes your way. You also want the industry-specific knowledge, but really, if you can't problem solve, then you're not going to be able to adapt to future needs. And I just, I love the way you describe that. It's really exciting. What have you loved most about this class? I want to ask each of you, whether it's just a general, something that you've learned, or a particular class, what have you liked most?

Student:
For me, I think it's just how hands-on it is. Our main project is we're building a drone just from scratch. And I think it's really cool being able to solder everything together and program things and just really see a drone just appear out of nowhere because of what you and your group are doing. I think that's pretty cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it gives you a deep understanding of how it all works when you're building it from scratch.

Student:
I just like making my ideas become a reality and just getting what I think would be cool to make it real.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me one of your ideas that you've been able to work on.

Student:
I don't know, our drone, for one. I don't know, we're making like a claw for it right now, and I think it's really interesting to try to...

Anthony Godfrey:
You're making a what?

Student:
Like a claw for the drone.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, a claw for the drone. Oh, wow. Okay. So it can pluck people out of their backyard and transport them someplace else.

Student:
Yeah, I guess.

Student:
It's for stealing hats.

Anthony Godfrey:
For stealing hats. Hey, you know what? You got to start somewhere. How about for you?

Student:
I like just how different it's been from a regular education and how similar it will be to real life. I enjoy it a lot more because there's more creativity and there's more teamwork. And you're not just doing things just to like waste time or get credit. You're actually building something that has a task, that has a purpose, and in the real world can make something happen. So it's very exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there's an application for what you're learning, and really every minute is useful.

Student:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful.

Student:
Kind of the same thing that Mason said, honestly. It's how hands-on it is, how I'm not sitting at a desk just staring at a screen. You know?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. No, I understand. I appreciate that. That's great. What's the timeline for completing the project, and what will that look like? What are the steps?

Amber Saffen:
We've started meeting with the TechRise team. The students will be meeting with their NASA TechRise team and the NASA engineers they'll be working with this Thursday for the first time. And then they'll be meeting with them once a week for the next 18 weeks to help them learn how to put this together, build the experiment. The box that will be going up on the balloon that they sent us arrived the other day. It's sitting in the classroom. We're very excited to open it. And then they will finish it up around May right at the end of the school year, ship it back to NASA, and then it will be going up in the summer on a Worldview balloon to lower stratosphere. That date is pending on weather, of course, for the launch. But it will be in the summer.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is really going to be rocket fuel for your careers where you think, “Hey, wait a minute. Maybe I do really want to do this. Maybe this is something that I could turn into a profession,” because there's nothing like working with NASA for figuring out whether aerospace engineering is for you. So congratulations. This is really exciting. And I can't wait to hear more about how the experiments go.

Amber Saffen and Students:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.

Mr. Luchs:
It's a competition between hundreds of different schools and thousands of students.

Student:
It had to be local folklore.

Student:
It was this guy that was exiled in like the mid*-1800s to like Fremont Island.

Student:
I think that that'd make a pretty good ghost story.

Mr. Luchs:
You spend those all-nighters making that color palette just right. That's the small details that separates you from, you know, sixth, seventh place or even two hundredth place.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are talented students being recognized on the world stage because of their passion for filmmaking and their amazing skills in storytelling. On this episode of the Supercast, meet students in the Riverton High School video production class who just walked away with second place in an international video competition as part of the student television network. Find out how a short horror film they produced is getting rave reviews and critical acclaim.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Riverton High School talking with students from the video production program. Introduce yourself, tell us what grade you're in, and what drew you to this program. Why did you want to be part of this?

Brennan Staggs:
Hello, I'm Brennan Staggs and I'm a sophomore and the thing that drew me into this program was the — I've always been into film so I think film is pretty cool.

Rockwood Inkley:
My name is Rockwood Inkley or Rocky and I'm also sophomore. The thing that drew me into this is I just, I love learning new types of art so I guess I saw this and thought it looked cool so I signed up.

Amden Olson:
Hi, I'm Amden Olson. I'm a sophomore and the thing that drew me to this is I've been doing photography for about two and a half years. I run an automotive photography business where we just started doing video so doing this helps me advance in my career and hopefully the video will be a pilot.

Scott Nelson:
Hello guys, I'm Scott Nelson and what drew me to this class was I've always wanted to be a filmmaker when I was a child and I saw that Riverton had video classes and thought it was really exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me what it's like being in this class right now. What are some of the things you've learned and what you love most about it?

Student:
I think I've learned mostly on how to make better videos on film and that's what I love about it.

Student:
My favorite thing in this class is using Premiere Pro and post-production. I find it fascinating.

Student:
I enjoy this class because it has helped me learn more about video composition, which is some of the things that clients really like. If you don't have good composition you're not going to get clients.

Student:
I love this class because it lets me be creative in the morning and I've learned how to use the equipment and how to edit better.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the competition that you just won, the international competition that you just won and what that's all about and what you made that allowed you to win this competition.

Student:
This was a horror fest so we had to make a one-minute horror short film. It had to be local folklore so we spent a while, me and Brennan, spent a while looking for local folklore and we came across this story from the 1860s.

Student:
Yeah, around the mid-1800s. It was a, what was his name? Jean Baptist. It was this guy that was exiled in the mid-1800s to Fremont Island, I believe.

Student:
One of the islands in Salt Lake. He was a grave robber and he got sent to the island and they found a skeleton, I think, at the base of the Jordan River with the words "grave robber" in the skull and it was chained and shackled which they didn't send him to the island chained and shackled. So I thought that'd make a pretty good ghost story.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's ask your teacher to introduce himself and tell us a little bit about the competition.

Mr. Luchs:
My name is Mr. Luchs. This is my fourth year at Riverton High School. I'm the video productions teacher and I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me about the competition, what's involved and who were they up against?

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, so the competition itself is for an international organization called Student Television Network. They have a lot of different competitions throughout the year. This one is their horror film competition. This one is very unique because throughout the year, their competitions involve lots of categories for all different types of video. And so though it's a competition between hundreds of different schools and thousands of students, your category often has a portion of those students. The horror film is unique because every student in every team is making the same type of prompt. These guys, to my understanding, were up against a couple hundred different first-year student teams, and so getting second place out of all those hundreds of teams, let alone many, many, many hundreds more of students, is very cool. They did have a set of requirements. They required, as they said, to find a local folklore and based the one-minute film on that. They were also required to meet certain story and recording-based specifications, which they did a very good job of doing. Or at least so the judges did.

Anthony Godfrey:
I already like the color tones here. Did you change the color tones at all or is this just what the Jordan River looks like? Because I'm already terrified.

Student:
I did the editing for this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Student:
So I get every question.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long, how much editing does it take for a one-minute horror video? Because I think people probably underestimate the time that it takes. At least three minutes, I would think.

Student:
I spent an all-nighter and half a day working on the editing for this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does editing horror films require that you do it in the middle, in the dead of night, really? Is that when you should be editing a horror movie?

Student:
No, but I am the oldest of four siblings. So that's what I get.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to wait till it gets quiet.

Student:
So yeah, that's when I get the most peace and quiet to work.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, that sounds fair.

Mr. Luchs:
If I might jump in, I want to give these guys a lot of credit for what he said, too about working overnight and into another day. One thing that's really interesting about being a video teacher is you have students that come to get the grade, and you have students who really give themselves to their projects and program. This is one of many classes, and I didn't require them to spend hours and hours doing this. This was an optional competition.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And he edited this during his fall break. So this wasn't just something he did on a whim. They really dived themselves into it. I think you guys had to record, rerecord like three different times to get all the shots that you needed.

Student:
Yes, we did have to rerecord three times. The first time we weren't very coordinated, and it ended up taking a lot more time to get us all in the right location. And our footage was kind of rushed and not very good. And the second time, the second time, was more like we had equipment malfunction and again, uncoordination. And then the final two times was when we had the actual footage that we filmed.

Anthony Godfrey:
So a lot of logistics, a lot of things to account for that you can't totally control always. And I appreciate that you went back to redo things. I think that's really cool that you dedicated as much time as you did.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, and I think that's really why they did so well, because like I said before, they are part of a first-year student film team. Everybody in this competition has, let's say six weeks of prior experience at most, depending on when their school year started. But what separates different first-year students from others is A) the passion and B) the commitment, because I can only teach them so much in six weeks. Their dedication to re-film, film again, get those extra shots that they think that they needed, to spend those all-nighters making that color palette just right. That's the small details that separates you from sixth, seventh place, or even 200th place in the competition. And you have to have skill. You have to have learned in your classes and pay attention for the time you have. But it's really that passion and dedication that makes them stand out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we watch the horror video with the students who produced it.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian, commercial pilot, programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education, CTE, in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or for a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with The Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District, visit cte.jordandistrict.org today, and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I see the big screen here that maybe we get to watch this video. Can we can we take a look?

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That was chilling. Honestly, honestly, I kind of got-- I absolutely got the chills watching that. So Rocky, you do your own stunts, I see.

Rocky:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Falling on the bike there and you're a grave robber right out of the chute there. So it pulls us in right away and then pulls you in literally at the end.

Rocky:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know what, listeners, I can't describe it. You're just going to have to see it for yourself. Now, I want to ask about one special effect. You couldn't actually see your breath or you could actually see your breath.

Student:
I think I found a PNG GIF and just overlaid it on top.

Mr. Luchs:
Wow. I actually-- I didn't even know that they did that. That just goes back to the test to their attention in detail because there's some things that they weren't told they had to do or how to do it. And I guess they figured it out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I was a language arts teacher and we used to do an exercise where you had to try to write a really short horror story. It's kind of the same thing where you only have so much time and you guys made the most of every second. It just pulls you in really fast. I really love that. I thought that was very cool. How do you guys feel about the final product now that you've put all this effort into it?

Student:
I saw this and I was really proud of all of the effort that Rocky and Brendan put into it. And I felt like they did a lot of things that I wasn't expecting in a good way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wonderful. How about you two?

Student:
I'm really happy with the way it turned out. There were a few things we wish we could have done better.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the art of sensibility. You're always going to tinker. You're always going to think, “oh, I could do this thing or I could do that thing.” There's always the director's cut that comes out later. George Lucas wants to put all the special effects in after the fact. Everybody thinks they could do a little better. But that's why you did so well because you're always striving to make sure that it's the best.

Student:
Yeah, I think the final product of the film is really, really impressive. I filmed some of it, Amden filmed some of it, and Rocky edited the thing, and when I saw the edited portion and the full final product, I was like, this is really impressive. I'm really proud.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hearing the story you based this on and then seeing the product, there's a lot of creativity between the source material and where we ended up. And it's really impressive. I'm excited to see what you guys do from here because that shows just a ton of potential. And speaking of that, are you all going to continue in video production going forward? In these video classes? Now, tell me about what you want to do. What are your goals? Let's start here because you've got a vehicle photography business. Is that right? I was just really excited once I finally got a vehicle, but you're already photographing them. So let's talk about that.

Student:
Yeah, me and my friend Hunter, we met doing aviation photography. So things like the fighter did some of the Air Force Base, the commercial planes of the International Airport, things like that. And we both showed a passion for cool cars like Mustangs, McLarens, Corvettes, things like that. And we decided to start a business to try to make money off of our photos that we would go to car meets and do . . . And it did decently well the first couple months we got upwards of 10, 15 clients. And then after that, we kind of dropped off a little bit because we started school. So we weren't able to take as many as often, but we still have a consistent one or two, maybe three clients a month.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, that's really cool. So they hire you to take pictures of their classic cars or their expensive cars to show them in the best light. How about the rest of you? What are you thinking about building on this success? Do you want to continue with this as a career as a class? What are you thinking?

Student:
Uh, yeah, I mean, I plan on taking Video 2 and 3. I really enjoyed this. I'd like to make a longer horror film. I, but yeah, hobby, just professionally, I'd love to continue doing this.

Student:
I'd also love to continue doing this, not just as a hobby, but maybe a career. I think a director of like a TV show or series would be an interesting career path.

Student:
I really like the art of video. I don't think I'm going to do it as a career, maybe like a hobby-istic side career, like get extra money and stay in the art.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah, I was gonna say I you mentioned before that we're excited to see where these guys go and nobody's more excited than I am because I . . . because they're sophomores, you know, seeing them be passionate first off. Awesome. And I have two more years that we get to experience things. And so I'm glad they want to experience things because one of the hopes we have for the program is to help them understand where and how this can be a part of their life by the time that they leave and prepare them for that. And I'm sure many of these guys have a lot of different routes they're going to take, but they, they all have what it takes to get to those routes as we, as we keep going these next couple of years together. It's exciting to have discovered this talent and interest so early in their high school career so that they can capitalize on that. I think I mentioned this prior a little bit, but the type of student that we get here in the program is, is fascinating because it's not just the people who love like watching videos online or film. I've had a lot of students who love video, who give up because they didn't realize how much work it takes to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
The students who stick around and really make this program what it is in our advanced classes, they're the ones with a lot of grit. I get people from anywhere from drama programs to yearbook, anybody from a lot of cross country kids. It's anybody who has that desire to make something good and is happy with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
I love recruiting those kids because you could have a silver screen class. For example, we make a school show and we only have 16 kids and they make a consistent show and they have awesome quality. We've really done some awesome things with that, but those 16 kids work so hard to make it happen.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And I can't explain to you how hard it would be if those students weren't as invested as they are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Tell me about your journey to become a teacher here. You said it's your fourth year here at Riverton. Talk to me about becoming a video teacher.

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah. So I actually have a unique story with video teaching because a lot of the time when you talk to a video teacher or even the CTE in general, they come from the industry where they've been working and they want to change things and they find out that teaching is a good path. I actually decided to start teaching video back when I was high school because I did my own video projects. I was a YouTuber. I was one of the first people to do really silly dumb videos with like gaming YouTube channel back before it was normal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And so you got a lot of backlash, but my dad supported me and I found out that I loved doing it not because I loved gaming or anything like that, but I love the art of editing and I loved being an entertainer and that led me to try out more types of video. And eventually I decided that I wanted to switch career paths and do something with video, but I also wanted to be a family man and the freelance lifestyle didn't suit me personally. So, I had the thought one day to teach and I would talk to people and outside of Utah and outside of states like Utah, California, Florida, probably there's not as much CTE as we have here. So nobody had ever seen video classes in high school, maybe just the morning announcements that are, you know, sure. But I would talk to people and I'd say, “Hey, I want to be a teacher.” And they're like, “Oh, that's awesome. What do you want to teach?” I'd say, “Oh, I want to teach video.” And they would stare at me like, “Oh, good luck with that.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
And here we are, you know, full-time film schedule. I teach so many cool things. I love it. Being a teacher is such a good, good life. It really is.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what's next for this program. Obviously, I can tell that you've been modifying and adapting and making other options available. What do you hope to see in the future?

Mr. Luchs:
Yeah. So we've been so fortunate to be supported in all the growth that we've been doing from reconstructing the room to building new classes. We're at a point that everything's settling down. We've built up the program to what you wanted to be. And the future is really making student experiences shine. These students that have done the Horror Film Fest, they have two more years and can't be more excited about it because their possibilities, there are so many different directions they can take even just in the one program. For example, during Video 2 Film, we teach them a lot of hands-on advanced skills for filmmaking, commercial making podcasts, special effects. But a really cool direction that we do uniquely at this school is we study the industry and career paths. And we do that by first, we give them clients from the real world. My video to students are actually in a couple weeks about to start filming for companies outside of Riverton High School to make commercials for them. That starts a real-world portfolio that they can use to start making money if they want to.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mr. Luchs:
Because nobody hires you until they see what you have to offer.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Mr. Luchs:
So we're going to teach them that. We're going to teach them how to work with people outside of a teacher in terms of client. Then beyond that, we're going to start doing Zoom video calls with a variety of video professionals in Utah. And we're going to talk to them about their career path, what their job looks like. That way, students can start seeing what video actually means in the real world and whether it's for them or which path that is because there's so many paths of video.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the way that you build those experiences. Let's teach you some skills. Let's get you in some competition. Let's have you work as a team. And then I'm going to create a pathway. If you want to make money doing this on the side or as a career, that's something you can absolutely do. And you just lay out the path for them. I think that's really exciting. And we've talked about the passion that these kids have shown. But it's really exciting to see your passion for this program and to really help bring out the best in students. So thank you for being here and for everything you're doing. I'm excited to watch where this goes.

Mr. Luchs:
Thank you. I'm living that dream like we talked.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “education is the most important thing you will do today!” We'll see you out there.