Putney students’ video on VSAC program wins national competition

A short video created by Putney twins and featuring an Enosburg family about education opportunity has won a national video competition.

The Lombard Family: A TRIO Talent Search Success Story features five sisters who have participated in the Talent Search education program with outreach counselors from Vermont Student Assistance Corp. The video was filmed and edited by Putney twins Aja and Kaelan Selbach-Broad, Talent Search students at Bellows Falls Union High School.

Aja and Kaelan Selbach-Broad

Talent Search is one of two statewide VSAC outreach programs that offers career and college planning services to eligible middle school and high school students and their parents. Talent Search, a federal grant program from the U.S. Department Education, encourages students to set high academic expectations, complete high school and prepare to enter education or training programs after high school.

VSAC Talent Search provides services to 37 targeted middle schools and high schools and serves more than 1,000 students each year.

“We’re thrilled to showcase the VSAC Talent Search program on a national stage, but honestly, the Lombard family and Aja and Kaelan Selbach-Broad are so inspiring in capturing the power of hard work and education,” said Scott Giles, VSAC president and CEO. “And it’s particularly gratifying because VSAC, too, is celebrating 50 years of changing lives through education and this video gives voice to the hopes and dreams of so many of the students and families we serve.”

The Council for Opportunity in Education hosted the video contest to celebrate 50 years of Talent Search, one of the  TRIO of federally funded college access and success programs created in the Higher Education Act of 1965.

COE has invited five members of the team to Atlanta for the annual conference Sept. 16 -19. The video will be shown at the opening of the conference and students will participate in a panel discussion, followed by interviews at the StoryCorps studio and a grand finale presentation:  The Power of Students’ and Communities’ Stories.