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‘Bobcat Pride’ video proves popular

More videos showcasing current and former MHS students planned

Potter

“It’s been a very fun project to be a part of and we’re happy with the response it’s getting on social media.”

Marshalltown Schools Communications Director Andrew Potter said he’s been getting good community and Marshalltown High School alumni feedback on the video “Bobcat Pride,” which premiered at Monday’s school board meeting.

“It was about a three-month project,” Potter said of the 3 minute 35 second video of current Marshalltown students describing what they want to do in their future careers and former students describing their pride for the district.

The idea for the video came after district Superintendent Dr. Theron Schutte saw a video about student career goals from the Iowa Association of School Boards.

“Dr. Schutte came up with the idea based on something from the Iowa Association of School Board’s ‘Promise of Iowa’ video,” Potter said. “(Schutte’s) idea was to pair that with some successful alumni out there.”

In the video, students describe their desired career, with jobs from lawyer to actor and police officer to engineer among their goals. For each student statement, there is an example of an alum who has had success in that career area.

Featured alumni working in the community included lawyer Doug Beals, teacher Ashley Verdinez-Ramirez, Marshalltown police officer Juan Tejada, Emerson Process Management-Fisher Controls material engineering manager Meredith Bell and Midnight Ballroom owner Luisa Ortega.

Also featured were Marshalltown grads who went on to find success in other parts of the state and country, including actor Toby Huss, Mark Williams of Dallas architecture firm HKS Inc., collegiate student-athletes Tyler Kluver and De’Quan McDowell, Spokane, Wash.-based emergency physician Dr. Darin Neven and Iowa State University student and orchestra violin player Nataly Sánchez.

“They meant it from their hearts,” Potter said of the graduates’ pride in being a Bobcat. “It’s not like it was forced that they’re proud to be Bobcats, they are proud to be Bobcats, that was something that was apparent to me.”

Word-of-mouth was the primary way featured alumni found out about the video, he said.

“It was enlightening for me to see that they were all on-board, no alum said ‘I won’t do it,'” Potter said. “Every alum I was able to contact said ‘I’ll do it.'”

Because of the positive feedback from the community and those featured in the video, it’s likely district students and residents will see more such material in the future.

“I’ll continue to get some ideas,” Potter said.

“We’ll definitely continue to spotlight successful alumni and students,” he said. “Sometimes they graduate and go on and we lose track of them, but we went and gathered them back together to see what they’re doing in the world … and that’s something we want to continue to do in some shape or form.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the video has garnered more than 3,200 views on Youtube and reached nearly 23,000 on Facebook, Potter said.

The video can be viewed on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY9us07mtDs, and a link can be found on the district’s website at https://www.marshalltown.k12.ia.us

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