Roots with Wings, a Floyd County Place-Based Education Project:: Intergenerational Connections

Floyd Story Center

Since 1998, a community oral history collection partnership of the Old Church Gallery, Ltd., Radford University’s Center for Social and Cultural Research, Honors Program, Scholar-Citizen Initiative, Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, and Floyd County High School. Our archives now hold over 100 interviews.

In our Roots with Wings project, college mentors, high school staff, and community volunteers meet weekly during the school year to teach the discipline of oral history collection.


Students learn ethical, methodologically sound interview techniques, practice and complete several interviews, transcribe the audiotapes, create searchable content logs, archive interviewee resources and period photographs, learn the technology of audio and video recording, research historical backgrounds, acquire proficiency in iMovie and storytelling, and finally extract a theme from an hour long interview to create a seven minute movie production.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Last Day for Radford University Student Mentors

 Floyd County High School Students Take the Lead

Thursday, April 26th, the RU mentors sat down with FCHS students to go over themes. We discussed the key points of our interviews, digging deep to find an overarching theme for each movie. We noted the difference between themes and topics, possible movie titles, and more! This was an interactive day with the students as they worked in groups to find their answers.

While classes are coming to an end for the students and just final touches for their projects, it's a wrap for the the Radford University student mentors! After weeks of travelling to Floyd County every Thursday, the mentors are finishing up their classes this week.  This year, every mentor is a graduating senior, so a big thank you and farewell to the students that have dedicated their time to Roots with Wings.

As a mentor myself, I am so sad that is my last day with the Roots with Wings project. I jumped on board with the group last year in 2017 and enjoyed the process. I've grown so much with organization and been exposed to so many new opportunities.  I will definitely miss the classroom experience, but I plan on taking the classroom management skills to my next career move.    (thank you Roots with Wings!!)

So, even though the university students are coming to end, the high school students still have a couple more weeks left. Spring Fever has definitely hit as we try to finish up the final parts of our project. In discussing themes, we hope to find parts of the transcripts that will connect to create a four minute movie. Best of luck to the students as they start on this process and to Catherine Pauley, Kathleen Ingoldsby, and Dr. Melinda Wagner as they take over the classroom to lead the students.

Thank you to our weekly readers, we appreciate the support! It's been a pleasure keeping you posted on our weekly events. Until next time! Eileen Lagos

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