As part of Plan East Tennessee's Digital Storytelling Project, six students from Austin-East High School will be showcasing their recently produced digital stories on Saturday, April 13th. The stories, produced by three seniors and three juniors, will be available for viewing on from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. that day in the Community Room of Pellissippi State Community College's Magnolia Avenue Campus. The afternoon's event will include a meet and greet with the project team and students and a chance to view and discuss the films. The team will also discuss what's in store for the future of the Digital Storytelling Project.

The students' digital stories are focused on how they would like their communities here in East Tennessee to grow and change in the future. These students have been a part of a project team whose members include Project GRAD Knoxville, Carpetbag Theatre Inc., the Knox County Health Department, and East Knoxville Community Organizer Mickeeya Harrison, all working with Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) to better understand how youth, particularly in East Knoxville, want their communities to look and feel in the years to come.

The students began working with PlanET and other project partners early this year. The goal of this project was for the Austin-East students to explore and formulate their views on issues related to the environment, transportation, housing and neighborhoods, their individual and their community's health as well as the local and regional economy. The students then created their own digital stories about how they want their communities to grow. During the course of a weekend in March, the students worked with Carpetbag Theatre to brainstorm ideas and select digital images and sounds that together tell their story.

For more information about the Digital Storytelling Project, the April 13th event, or PlanET please contact Sherith Colverson, PlanET Outreach Coordinator, at 865-215-4396 or at [email protected] and visit: www.planeasttn.org.

For more information about Project GRAD, please visit: www.projectgradknoxville.org.

For more information about Carpetbag Theatre, please visit: www.carpetbagtheatre.org.

For more information about the Knox County Health Department, please visit: www.knoxcounty.org/health.