SXSW EDU 2025
Beacons of Hope: Positive Storytelling for Public Education
Description:
In this session, we’ll explore how positive storytelling can rebuild trust in public education. Using Pittsburgh as a case study, we’ll review how coordinated communications efforts are spotlighting “Beacons of Hope”: student-driven stories that show the world what schools, at their best, can be. Leveraging documentary films, podcasts, and eye-catching media platforms, storytellers in Mister Rogers’ real-life neighborhood are nurturing new connections between communities and schools—and sparking new opportunities for learners.
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Takeaways
- Audience will understand the full scope of communications tools available to them, from the conventional (but under-used) to the totally unexpected.
- Audience will understand the elements of positive, locally-rooted, emotionally-resonant stories that can help build trust in public schools.
- Audience will leave with a suite of examples and storytelling resources, as well as ideas for their own communications campaigns.
Speakers
- Ryan Rydzewski, Communications Officer, The Grable Foundation
- Gregg Behr, Executive Director, The Grable Foundation
Organizer
Ryan Rydzewski, Communications Officer, The Grable Foundation
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