Director Spreads Message of Early Awareness

Editor’s Note: The following is a feature from the USA Funds® 2008 annual report. USA Funds Education Access Report is highlighting those featured in the annual report to show the key roles that USA Funds plays in helping families prepare and pay for, and complete postsecondary education. To access the full report online, you’ll need Adobe Reader.

When Andrés Orozco sets out to make an educational film, he faces a significant challenge. “The trick,” says the award-winning filmmaker, “is to teach young people without really letting them know they’re being taught.”

To meet that challenge in his short film “16 Summers,” Orozco tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who learns the importance of planning for the future by dealing with a number of issues commonly faced by teens.

The film is the focal point of the updated USA Funds^® Unlock the Future^® materials, being released in 2009 for use by schools and organizations to promote early awareness of the benefits of higher education. Originally introduced in 2003, USA Funds Unlock the Future teaches middle school students and their families about the many educational options available to them.

In 2008, 277 schools and organizations ordered USA Funds Unlock the Future materials, sharing the early awareness message with 16,620 students and 5,540 family members.

In “16 Summers,” main character Dominique Taylor’s world revolves around her plans for an extravagant “Sweet 16” party — and then her family loses their home to foreclosure. They move in with Dominique’s grandparents, and her mother and father work additional hours to cover expenses. Meanwhile, Dominique, who has to move to a new school, begins to rebel by spending time with questionable friends.

Only with the help of her family and others in her school and community does Dominique learn that family and friends, and the future she’ll have with them, are more important than glamorous parties.

Orozco wrote and directed the film, and plays the role of a math tutor. Also in the film are Nick Cannon  — successful rapper, writer, comedian, actor and producer — and Cannon’s father and brother.

Focus groups of previous USA Funds Unlock the Future users suggested that the film have strong African-American characters and role models, as “16 Summers” does. But Orozco says his main goal was to create a story to which everyone could relate regardless of race or background.

“That’s when a beautiful thing happens,” Orozco says. “Students project their own situations onto the characters in the movie, and it creates a safety zone where they can talk about their own problems but not really talk about themselves. Parents can relate too, and the situation allows them to talk about the characters even though they’re really talking about the person sitting next to them.”

Along with the addition of “16 Summers,” the new version of USA Funds Unlock the Future includes updates such as a single presentation for students and parents — instead of breaking the program into separate tracks for those audiences — and an increased focus on the importance of family and the community in early awareness.

Messages with universal truths
Orozco’s work on “16 Summers” is not his first for USA Funds. He previously wrote, directed and acted in the telenovela contained in USA Funds Consejos.

Released in late 2007, USA Funds Consejos encourages Latino middle school students and their families to prepare for and pursue higher education. During 2008, 245 schools and organizations ordered USA Funds Consejos materials nationwide, reaching approximately 14,700 students and 4,900 family members.

Orozco’s company Novelas Educativas focuses on educational films. He draws on his own experiences to create stories that spread messages through universal truths that bond people of different backgrounds.

“You learn that people are more alike than different and that we need each other,” Orozco says. “We all have families. We’ve all been lonely at some point. We’ve all experienced heartbreak. And we’ve also done things that we didn’t think we could do. Like in my filmmaking, you have to learn to find people’s similarities.”

Orozco is a 37-year-old graduate of the University of Utah, where he received a bachelor’s degree in film studies and a master’s degree in mass communication. Based in Oxnard, Calif., he also teaches filmmaking and screenwriting at Oxnard College, which is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution, and in local high schools. His role in the classroom allows him to be a mentor like those to whom his early awareness films encourage students to turn for answers.

Shane Harley, interim executive director of the Indianapolis Police Action League, says that mentoring message in “16 Summers” is one he appreciates.

His organization has presented USA Funds Unlock the Future to about 3,500 students and their family members involved in PAL’s tutoring and mentoring program since 2005. Harley was among the focus group members to preview the new film last fall.

“It’s important to let students and families know that it’s not about one individual succeeding. It’s about the family succeeding,” Harley says. “You need a support system to be successful. You need support to get through peer pressure and focus on schoolwork. So I appreciate that ‘16 Summers’ brings family and community benefits to the forefront.”

Benefits of higher education
Juanita McKenzie Russell, director of financial aid at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, has presented USA Funds Unlock the Future’s materials to eighth- and ninth-graders in the local community and to incoming Alcorn State freshmen. It’s that message of the financial benefits of a postsecondary degree that really hits home, she says.

The updated USA Funds Unlock the Future materials continue to emphasize that message, as well as the importance of higher education and the availability of financial aid to fund it.

And, if Orozco has his way, with the help of his film, students and families also will get the message of the importance of working with each other to plan their future.