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.

Monday, March 11, 2019

University mentors + high school teachers + non-profit = RWW

2019 Roots With Wings Flies in a New Direction


Catherine Pauley shows a project interview binder presented to each interviewee.
   This semester the Roots with Wings:  Floyd County Place-based Education Oral History Project  switches things up, with Radford University students partnering with teachers from Floyd County High School to record and preserve local history.  After years of successful work with Floyd County High School and Radford University students, our project welcomes the unique perspective of Floyd County teachers, who lead the future of Floyd County youth with strong community ties. 

     In this version of the Project, Floyd County Public School faculty are obtaining professional development points toward teaching credential relicensure.  Radford University (RU) students are receiving course and internship credit in the Sociology Department and through the Citizen-Leader Program.  

       Radford University students have been meeting with the teachers weekly since January 30th.  As project leaders, Dr.  Melinda Wagner and Catherine Pauley have said, this is the vanguard for the future of this project, but is also returns to the roots of the project as it first began in 1998, when RU student interviews helped launch the oral history program.  
Recording Practice: from left: Kimberly Ingram, Amanda Burroughs, Cora Bland
   At our February 7th meeting, we paired up to practice audio recording with the trusty Marantz and the new Tascam recorders to prepare ourselves for the upcoming Spring oral history interviews.  We're all looking forward to discovering more about the unique community of Floyd and methods for conserving local history.  
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