Ankeny High School (AHS) offers hundreds of opportunities for its students, but this year, there was one fewer. For 16 years, Mr. Asmussen taught the video class, creating RAP videos for Ankeny students. This year, however, there was no class, and the responsibility of creating these videos fell onto three seniors.

“When Mr. A told me there wasn’t going to be a senior video, that was really upsetting because I love the idea of having documentation of the whole year to look back on,” said senior Maddy Shepard.

Mr. A had told his students that there wouldn’t be enough students for a video class next year. However, Mr. A stated that if they could get a group of at least three people together, they would have enough students to start an internship with Orbis to bring back video production.

“I started making RAP videos this year because there was no production team. I wanted to give the student body the same experience that we had,” said senior Claudia Galligan.

Galligan wanted to give the students the experience that prior students had, so she joined the production team with her friends, pushing to capture their final year at the high school.

“I like to think the impact of our work makes the student body feel more proud, unified, and informed about extracurriculars/activities they wouldn’t have otherwise known about,” said senior Jordan Goemann. “I wanted the video class to come back because I wanted something to commemorate my senior year of high school. I think the videos give so much life to the school and its workings,” says Goemann.

The class encouraged them to push their artistry into their own work, promoting student leadership by letting them take charge of the class.

“It’s your creativity and your uniqueness that transform the class. I think that that’s part of the appeal,” said Mr. A.

The video class was a big part of the school. It was able to give the students a chance to document their years throughout their high school experience.

“I think Mr. A pushed the hardest because he’s so passionate about us connecting with our peers and creating the senior video to commemorate our high school experience on behalf of our graduation class. I really hope we left a good example for the underclassmen,” said Goemann.

Their dedication to rebuilding the program left a strong impression on the students involved. All members of the class felt like they were a part of something bigger than themselves.

“I view our time in video production as a rescue mission because we were the ones who brought it back, but I also view it as something that inspired people to want to follow in our footsteps,” said Galligan.

The success of the group also created hope for the future of video production at the school. Students believe their hard work would help the class continue for years to come

“Since video production will officially be a class again next year, I’d say we accomplished our primary goal of making video production sustainable at Ankeny High School for years to come,” said Goemann.

Even with the progress that was made, students know the future of video production depends on the continuation of the leadership and efforts. Still, many are confident that the next group of students will carry on what they started.

“I hope they look up to our work for inspiration n and guidance as they approach how to make their senior capstone video next year,” said Goemann.

Although this group has graduated, their impact on the video production class will continue to be felt throughout the school. Starting as an attempt to keep the video class continuing, it has become the motivation for future students to keep building on for years to come.

“I think it’s up to Mr. A on how next year goes. I feel like we were just filling in the gap as much as we could to keep the ball rolling, but the next class is in good hands,” says Shepard.