Prescott Seraydarian

Prescott Seraydarian is a film and media literacy teacher at George School in Newtown, PA, where he also serves as a dorm parent and ultimate frisbee coach. Prescott is also an award-winning filmmaker and author of the middle grade graphic novel series The Pathfinders Society published by Penguin.

As a film and media teacher, and in his own writing, Prescott is interested in how we use story to connect with and positively impact others. The STTP film contest was naturally a good fit for his teaching and interests, and he has incorporated this curriculum and contest into his film classes for the past several years to great success. Understanding the power this contest can have to inspire youth to create change, Prescott and fellow RFK STTP Lead Educator, Meredith Baldi, led a series of workshops at the RFK Summer Institute in San Diego, to help other educators understand the power of film and media to produce social change.

Film and media are powerful vehicles for human rights advocacy and social change, and his classes celebrate this. He teaches media literacy through the lens of justice and peace in a class at George School called Producing Peace, which he co-teaches with Meredith. He has also co-developed a course called Storytelling for Social Justice, which involves bringing students to Greece to volunteer directly in support of the refugee crisis, with an emphasis on using art as a tool for self-expression and education, and using media to help elevate refugee voices and give them agency to tell their own stories.