Bullying: Fighting back, from the stage

CSSSA Full-Time Writing Faculty 

California Institute of the Arts / Summer 2023

• Taught the fundamentals of screenwriting to 60+ youths from around the United States

Anti-Racist Curriculum Writer/Co-Founder/Content Creator

C.A.R.E. /California / 2020-present

C.A.R.E. is committed to transformation through intention and action. We are a group of people who believe that people are important, and we MUST preserve that truth through strategic and deliberate actions that uphold diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice to advocate for human and civil rights. Our group is determined to actively work in collaboration to reform education, debt servitude, and political reform that will benefit all people. We are dedicated to helping children, families, educators, and communities by connecting people to existing programs that aid in restorative justice and creating new programs that will aid in restorative justice, education reform, housing reform, prison reform, and policy changes.

• Co-authored an innovative, creative anti-racism curriculum designed to teach and provoke diverse thought and empathy in all participants

• Created and produced inclusive, thought-provoking discussion series through the lens of the Black American experience past and present

• Animated, edited, and produced short-form video content aimed at, energizing, informing, and intriguing audiences about social justice, anti-racism education, and social reform

Screenwriting Professor

IT University /Kazakhstan / 2019 - 2019

Through strong organizational and creative communication skills, I was able to empower over 60 multilingual students to learn the art of screenwriting.

• Integrated technology into classroom instruction including video, online learning platforms, and exciting in-person exercises

• Created an effective learning environment that fostered students’ intellectual curiosity and growth

• Energized students to share their diverse stories about social issues through the art of storytelling

 

Adjunct Professor

Mount Saint Mary’s/Los Angeles/2018-2018

Through my professional experience within the media sector, I was able to teach and inspire 20 undergraduate students toward their creative writing goals.

• Developed diverse, innovative, engaging curriculum, lesson plans, and syllabus on Canvas

• Captivated student's imaginations with in-person exercises

• Recorded grades and submitted reports

• Through a transparent, collaborative, and open approach, I was able to inspire student engagement which lead to the completion of thoughtful, powerful, original feature-length screenplays

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Screenwriting/Directing/Producing Professor

Turan University, Action Lab, Premiere Film Academy/Kazakhstan / 2014-2016

Over the course of five years, I taught well over 100 students in Kazakhstan the fundamentals of filmmaking which included directing, acting, producing, editing, and cinematography.

• Worked with colleagues from diverse ages, socioeconomic, cultural, and academic backgrounds

• Devised creative and inclusive ways to communicate with students within multilingual classes

• Trained amateur and professional filmmakers in the art of screenwriting, producing, cinematography, and editing

• Coordinated, mentored, and guided students and professionals to complete 25 short award-winning movies, 50 short screenplays, and one feature-length movie that also went on to win multiple awards

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Teaching Artist/Assistant Director/Playwright

Plaza de la Raza CAP Program/Los Angeles/2001-2016

I worked with diverse, collaborators in a non-profit theater program where we empowered and supported students and the community to share issues of social justice which resulted in conceptualizing, writing, producing, and performing full-length plays with musical elements on an annual basis both at Plaza de la Raza’s Margo Albert Theater and at The Walt Disney REDCAT theater. CAP employed the pedagogy of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed under the direction of BJ Dodge, my mentor, in order to engage and connect with the students and community at large. I am inspired by the power the theater has to evoke empathy through building community, resolving conflicts, therapy, healing, and government legislation. Augusto Boal wrote in his book, Theater of the Oppressed, that theater is a “weapon for liberation”. I believe this to be true because, throughout my sixteen years of collaboration with the CAP program, I and so many others were truly liberated. 

• Coached and directed actors

• Prop building

• Set building

• Set painting

• Playwriting: I wrote and conceptualized two plays with the students which were performed at The Walt Disney REDCAT Theater

• Collaborated in securing National Endowment for the Arts Grant funds

• Integrated personal as well as Meisner acting technique, and Linklater Voice Training in order to help encourage students to find their confidence and sense of creative autonomy while maintaining a sacred respect for the collaborative nature of theater