Fostering Opportunity in a Time of Uncertainty: Taking the Digital Storytelling Internship Virtual
By Matthew Decker, Assistant Professor of English and Co-Coordinator of the Digital Storytelling Internship, with Jamie Gillan, Associate Professor of English and Co-Coordinator of the Digital Storytelling Internship, Montgomery College
For many Montgomery College community members, March 2020 was a stressful time. Faculty and students learned they would not be returning to their physical classrooms, and the Digital Storytelling Internship team of nine interns, three faculty members, and a handful of dedicated stakeholders learned they would need to embrace a new online environment. Sponsored by the Paul Peck Humanities Institute and the MC Innovation Fund, the Digital Storytelling Internship enjoyed a relatively seamless inaugural fall 2019 semester, forming the infrastructure of
the experience while establishing multiple opportunities for the future. Unfortunately, COVID-19 put our original plans for the interns in flux—physical classroom visits and office hours at the Digital Learning Centers became impossible, the 9th International Digital Storytelling Conference to be hosted by Loughborough University (UK) was postponed, our excursion to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County seemed no longer possible, and our promises for professional development were slipping through our fingers. As coordinators of the internship, we found ourselves wondering: “How can we maintain the ‘magic’ of an internship experience designed to be an in-person collaborative service-driven opportunity for the interns?”
Responding Remotely
At first, we felt lost, adrift as we navigated the transition to emergency remote work and learning around the globe. We did, however, make some key decisions that set the tone for our virtual reboot:
- Our professional development seminars would continue.
- We would find a way for interns to attend virtual classrooms and to host office hours to support students one on one.
- We would redesign the field trip to UMBC, evolving the concept.
- We would still host a showcase.
- As leaders, we would remain just as committed to the internship, resolving to be in the process with our interns.
Once we set course for the internship to continue, navigating our new online space proved fruitful, creating new pathways for our work that made lasting impressions on the interns and our leadership team.
Discovering New Technology
As soon as we realized the long-term ramifications of the pandemic, we jumped to innovate how we collaborate, which drew us to Microsoft 
Teams. While there are numerous subscription-based project management tools in the internet ether, we took advantage of the Microsoft Office suite provided to MC faculty and students, and, after a quick investigation of its functionality, we knew we had a virtual home base for our shared files, project goals, tasks, and instant communication. Interns posted drafts of their digital stories to collect feedback as well as pinned thumbs ups and hearts. We established new initiatives and marked our progress as we attempted and accomplished them. We also announced Zoom meeting invitations and special events. Each of us developed a new tech proficiency as we adapted to Teams, proving we could thrive even if our promised in-person experiences were no longer feasible. While certainly not an intended element of our internship, Microsoft Teams added value to our work and buoyed our professional development objectives for the interns, providing the opportunity to boost their skillset, enhance their resumes, and foster a sense of community we thought was lost.
The Digital Decameron
Using Teams—and realizing the impact of virtual collaboration—is possibly one of the reasons why the Digital Decameron, a special project hosted by UMBC and modeled after Giovanni Boccaccio’s original Decameron, emerged as such a significant endeavor for us as storytellers. Functioning as a creative response to the postponement of the DST2020 Conference, an event our interns were selected to attend and to present their work virtually, the Digital Decameron allowed us a space to share their stories and to participate in a global effort to communicate and connect despite the distance of geography and the uncertainty of a sudden health crisis. Nine of our past and present interns participated in Week 5, telling meaningful stories about the role of mentors, personal growth and courage, the present moment, and the value of third spaces. One of the stories—a collaborative project compiled by an alumnus of the Fall 2019 internship cohort—reminds viewing audiences to embrace lighthearted moments, to pursue restorative hobbies, and to contribute to meaningful work in challenging times, all themes that have manifested in our internship efforts and research these past few months.
Stories that Resonate
In their instructive text Digital Storytelling: Story Work for Urgent Times, Joe Lambert and Brooke Hessler frequently speak to how a shared story can be transformative for individuals, communities, and societies, especially in the wake of crisis, among countless other dire situations worldwide. In the introduction to their text, they share a list of concerns many of us are grappling with today: “…the events of the last several years have us worried. Worried about the planet. Worried about civility. Worried about peace. Worried about the gulf between the rich and the poor. Worried about democracy. Those have always been things to concern citizens in the post-enlightenment history of human civilization” (Lambert and Hessler, 2020). For storytellers, taking the time to unpack personal, communal, or global concerns such as these and to articulate them in a supportive environment is essential to the “continued construction of a healthy, individual identity” (Lambert and Hessler, 2020). Through the Digital Storytelling Internship, and beyond our ambitions for Professional Development/Training, Service and Support, and Leadership—the three essential branches of the internship’s design—we recognize the importance of holding space for the interns to revisit conflicts, to clarify decisions, to forgive the past, and more. In doing so, they often achieve a form of closure while also utilizing a storytelling method that emboldens various aptitudes and carries the potential to influence a broader viewing audience. The emotional ripple effect that results from this process is fascinating and meaningful, and, this past spring, our interns and members of the MC community experienced this rewarding outcome in a final showcase.
When we gathered together to celebrate the Spring 2020 intern cohort in the Digital Storytelling Internship Showcase hosted on May 20th, we 
screened our six interns’ stories for nearly 100 MC community members who joined our Zoom event space. After weeks of planning the agenda and troubleshooting the technology, we were finally able to share the work that brings us so much joy as coordinators. Our interns’ digital stories received not only praise but also valued community feedback. We’ve never seen such an active virtual chat filled with thoughtful questions, an outpouring of support, personalized responses, and genuine heart. That last point is perhaps a little saccharine, but it’s hard to capture the emotional context of the showcase today. It felt like a release, as if the entire virtual crowd of attendees finally let out the collective breath they had been holding for months. As coordinators of the internship and students of the pedagogy, we know that feeling well.
How Our Interns Illustrate This Work
So much of the digital storytelling process pivots on wrestling with demons and unpacking emotional experiences that ultimately inspire catharsis. You can see this exemplified in the interns’ stories too. “Eternal Mudd” captures this beautifully. As you watch this visual elegy to Lincoln Mudd, a beloved professor of sculpture and printmaking, you can sense the student’s desire to connect with Mudd once more. The discussion of Mudd’s wisdom, the pauses in narration, the artwork on display, the role this mentor played in his life, the fact that the intern created each facet of the story from the visuals to the music—all of these speak to how he, and others, are transitioning to a life with and without Lincoln Mudd and reveal how one’s legacy imprints, persists. As the creator of “Eternal Mudd” pursues his Business and Graphic Design majors at MC, while also balancing full-time work as a plumber, it is clear Lincoln Mudd’s influence will be with him.
One of our Level Two interns—a student who first participated in the Fall 2019 internship and then applied for a second semester experience designed around special projects with multiple MC partners—first had to persuade her father to allow her to attend college and pursue a degree. Since that fateful conversation, she has soared as an Information Science and Systems major while remaining firmly rooted to her Punjabi upbringing and cultural history. Her digital story, “Train to Amritsar,” chronicles the harrowing experience of her grandmother during the Partition of India. As a story that features vulnerable personal anecdotes as well as a wealth of historical background content, her work stood out as one of the most content-rich of her intern cohort, paving the way for opportunities to present her story to MC leadership and to outfit her resume with impactful professional development experiences. She will be continuing her education this fall at the University of Maryland, Shady Grove in the Information Science Program.
Our final intern example captures the essence of our pilot academic year as the student participated in both the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters as a Level One and then as a Level Two intern. After sharing “A Difficult Choice” during the first Digital Storytelling Showcase at the close of the fall semester, we immediately recognized the impact of its content on the audience. It was only a matter of weeks before he was invited to present this story to the Academic Affairs Unit, the All-Administrators Unit, and the Board of Trustees. Why did this story strike such a chord, though? It highlights the recognizable tale of leaving one country for another in search of a dream and better future. Countless MC students have made this journey, but we do not always recognize or feel the pain, heartache, and grit required to endure. “A Difficult Choice” unfolds every unspoken layer, teases out every emotional hurdle, and finishes on a note of personal pardon. The intern dreams of becoming a filmmaker, and he will continue towards that endeavor this fall at Alabama State University where he was awarded the Academic Incentive Scholarship, paying his full tuition.
On the Horizon
We are so grateful to participate in and be witness to this work, which is why we remain steadfast in our goals to seek out funding for the Digital Storytelling Internship’s longevity, to cultivate MC’s Community of Practice in Digital Storytelling, to invite more faculty to test its impact on their classes and instruction. Digital storytelling is recognized as a high impact innovative pedagogy. For the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Bev Bickel, Bill Shewbridge, Romy Hübler, and Ana Oskoz, digital storytelling represents a push beyond what Ernest Boyer referred to as “a fragmentation of research, teaching, and service” to embrace a “scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching” (qtd. in 2017). To assign a digital story is to invite students to engage course material and to honor multiple proficiencies in a wholly unique project, a project that not only empowers their creativity but also inspires a sense of ownership. In this single assignment, depending on the discipline and the scope of its design, the students are granted the chance to navigate the proficiencies essential to General Education Assessment, including but not limited to Arts and Aesthetic Awareness, Critical Analysis, Effective Written and Oral Communication, Information Literacy, Integrative Learning, Technological Competency as well as Personal, Social and Civic Responsibility. Through our internship, classroom experiences, and collaborations with numerous MC faculty, too, we have seen students meet and master these proficiencies through their image selection and video production, their reflections on course outcomes and discussion of discipline-specific concepts, the script-writing and revising efforts, the narration of their stories, the integration of cited sources and final “credits,” and ultimately publishing—all of which enable an underlying desire to share the personal, communal, or global stories that need to be shared.
Digital Stories @ MC continues to grow with the Community of Practice and the Digital Storytelling Internship’s pilot academic year. In the span of a single year, approximately 30 new MC representatives have joined in this work, at least 20 unique class sections have been supported by a digital storytelling intern, and nearly 400 students across the college have already been invited to create digital stories for their classes. If this piques your interest as a faculty or staff member, we encourage you to visit our new webpage, to watch MCTV’s mini-documentary, or to reach out to us at Matthew.Decker@montgomerycollege.edu and Jamie.Gillan@montgomerycollege.edu. This work inspires us every day: It bolstered our spirits during trying times, and it instills us with a renewed sense of purpose as educators. We will bring this energy and enthusiasm to any digital story planning work you are imagining for your classes, and we have a fantastic collection of scholars and interns ready and willing to share their expertise.
References
Bickel, B., Shewbridge, B., Hübler, R., & Oskoz, A. (2017). Faculty reflections at the intersection of digital storytelling and community engagement. In Jamissen, G., Hardy, P., Nordkvelle, Y., & Pleasants, H. M. (Eds.), Digital storytelling in higher education: international perspectives (pp. 371-389). London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Galchen, R. (2020, July 8). An introduction to “The Decameron.” The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/07/magazine/what-is-the-decameron.html
Lambert, J., & Hessler, B. (2020). Digital storytelling: Story work for urgent times (6th ed.). Digital Diner Press.
MATTHEW DECKER holds a BA from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a Master of Arts in Literature from American University. Since 2011, he has taught developmental and credit-level English Composition courses as well as Introduction to Literature, Film and Literature, and Short Story courses at Montgomery College. During his time at MC, he has been a Faculty Associate for the E-Learning, Innovation, and Teaching Excellence professional development organization; a Course Coordinator for ENGL 102, the Critical Reading, Writing, and Research course; a member of the GHI Seminar Abroad to India; and, most recently, a Special Projects Coordinator for the Paul Peck Humanities Institute, an opportunity that allows him to explore innovative pedagogy, like Digital Storytelling with the Smithsonian Learning Lab. He is currently a co-coordinator of the Digital Storytelling Internship at Montgomery College.
JAMIE GILLAN is an Associate Professor of English at Montgomery College (MC) where she is a recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Faculty Award. Professor Gillan holds a B.S. in English Education from University of Central Florida and an M.A. from the College of Charleston in English Literature. She began at Montgomery College in 2012 and served as a department leader, having led “Critical Reading, Writing and Research” for six years. Professor Gillan was a 2015 Smithsonian Faculty Fellow, and she is currently the liaison between MC and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. As part of the Global Humanities Institute, she meet with colleagues at Xi’an University and throughout China in 2016. Currently, she leads Collaborative Interdisciplinary Projects for the Paul Peck Humanities Institute and co-coordinates the Digital Storytelling Internship. Her research interests include digital storytelling, diverse students, integrated learning, community colleges, globalized curriculums and classrooms, and participatory democracy. She is a doctoral student in the interdisciplinary Language, Literacy, and Culture program at UMBC. Outside of MC, she enjoys athletics, attending cultural events, and travel.
