Arlington Community Media Inc. is once again blessed by the arrival of two strapping interns from Northern Ireland as part of a program initiated last year by The Irish International Immigrant Center (IIIC) and Ann-Marie Byrne, Director of its Learning Exchange Program. This year’s duo arrived at ACMi bootcamp for induction on Wednesday morning April 17th for a tour with Ms. Byrne and two other officials from the program.
27-year old Niall from Londonderry and 19-year-old Ryan from Omagh in County Tyrone settled in quickly and the following day were already busy recording and editing a short piece designed to shift them into a workflow routine for the following five weeks, Monday through Thursday, that will allow each of them to learn about all aspects of television production.
Surfing and bodyboard enthusiast Niall is fascinated by his peek “behind the scenes” at ACMi and, along with hands-on tchno Ryan, is already editing ACMi projects for cablecast on ACMi channels. Both lads have been to Town Meeting sessions and to Steve Katsos Show tapings at ACMi’s 85 Park Avenue Studio A. They are also spending some time at ACMi Studio B, across from Arlington High School, to participate there in some projects being produced by AHS and ACHS students under the supervision of ACMi Youth Coordinator Dan Black.
In volunteering for this project, ACMi again became part of the Wider Horizons Program dedicated to “Transforming Lives & Contributing to Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland through Community Media in Boston.” The program is funded by the International Fund for Ireland (IFI), by FAS, and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. Participation in the program has once again provided ACMi and other community media centers in the area the opportunity to demonstrate how community media can be a used as a tool for peace and conflict resolution.
