The MISC Story Labs bring together students and recent alums who are interested in creating social impact media. MISC launched the development mixers to give creators the opportunity to bounce ideas off of each other, and meet fellow USC collaborators. In an informal setting, students from a range of disciplines bring together their story ideas, whether they are seeking crew as they move into production or they just have the germ of an idea for a story about a social issue. MISC hosted three story labs so far in the 2020 - 2021 academic year, and will continue to build the event to meet the needs of participants.

The Story Lab concept was created by MISC students August K. Burton, Evan Hartney, and Anne Brashier as a way to expand their networks and to meet like-minded storytellers who are passionate about social change. One of the guiding principles for Story Labs is to provide students with a pressure-free environment to meet and discuss creating art through a social change lens. The goal of the Story Labs is to allow students to cross-pollinate ideas and to find resources that could help their projects.

So far, around 30 students across all events, grads and undergrads, Starkies and SCA Minors, have met, pitched ideas, and entered smaller Zoom breakout rooms to get to know each other and to develop their ideas to the next stage.

We are excited to see how we can continue to deepen the opportunities for students to develop the stories for social change that they want to tell, especially as we move back to in-person learning when it is safe. We will keep evolving the Story Lab format to serve the greatest value for students.

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