September 26, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301 “Lights, camera, action!” is going to be a popular phrase at the Ulster BOCES Alternative School this fall, thanks to a $9,937 grant from the Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health, Inc. that will fund the Right Choice Project, a new comprehensive alcohol and substance abuse prevention program.

The Ulster BOCES Right Choice Project targets the behavioral and thinking processes of students making choices about risky behavior. Using theater and multi-media arts, the Project begins with students viewing and discussing current videos that deal with prevention of alcohol and substance abuse. Working with a theater arts consultant and a multi-media educator, they will then role-play real and hypothetical situations, write video scripts, mix in sound and music, and, ultimately, create their own prevention videos. After the final edit, they’ll present the videos to their peers in the school, acting as moderators and discussion leaders. The videos produced this year will be used as a springboard for the following year’s discussion and program initiation.

According to a study of 25,000 students conducted by researchers at The RAND Corporation, “At-risk youth participating in arts and prevention programs are staying in school and graduating.” Research also shows that presenting information using technologies, such as video, contribute to positive attitudes and greater success for at-risk students.

The Right Choice Project will operate during the 2001-2002 school year. Approximately 30-40 students will be actively involved in the program on a regular basis each semester. All 118 students at the Ulster BOCES Alternative School will participate in small group viewing and discussion of the student-created video series.

According to Rosemary Mannino, principal of the Alternative School, “The Right Choice Project will incorporate the kinesthetic, hands-on learning style that has proven to best reach the students at the Alternative School.”