Dillon Paul

Paul’s winning project, “The Presidential Election: 2012 Campaign Video Project,” aims to educate students about U.S. politics and geography and explain how media plays an important role in an election. Paul encourages her students to become critical viewers and creators of media and to use their tools of knowledge to become thoughtful, engaged, involved citizens. In the “Campaign Video Project,” democracy, citizenship and the role of media are examined through the lens of the 2012 presidential election. Students will work in small groups to explore the U.S. election process before creating their own presidential campaign. Students will be assigned a candidate and state to focus on where they must research the most pressing topics for their particular state and evaluate the candidate’s position on those issues. Students must find quotes, facts, statistics and images to support the position they are taking in the ad. Students will participate in talk show skits and recorded debates representing their assigned candidates. They will be able to see the impact of their messages through a mock school election. Paul resides in Brooklyn.