Roll 01 · Storytelling Advocacy
Every overlooked story deserves its close‑up.
LensPoint teaches students to use writing and film as tools of advocacy — turning research, curiosity, and craft into journalism, documentary, and creative work worth watching and reading.
Frame 00 · The Founders
Aryan Sharma & George Weichel
Co-founders and co-presidents of LensPoint, pictured with the Project LensPoint banner at one of their community sessions.
Roll 02 · Why LensPoint
Mainstream media skips the stories young people are closest to. We hand them the camera and the pen.
LensPoint is a youth-led media organization that helps students turn what they notice — climate change in their own neighborhood, a grassroots fix nobody's covering, a story their community already knows and no one else does — into finished work: an article, an essay, a short documentary, a piece of creative film.
We give students guidance and point them toward craft that's both entertaining and impactful, then get out of the way. Students choose their medium — writing or film — and their genre — informational or creative — and spend a full cycle researching, producing, and publishing something real, with mentorship the whole way through.
The goal isn't a portfolio piece. It's a habit: that the students we work with keep noticing, keep asking, and keep telling stories long after the program ends.
How it started
LensPoint began with a short environmental documentary Aryan and George made for a contest. In a few weeks, they cold-emailed local leaders and experts — including Irvine Mayor Larry Agran — then shot, edited, and submitted the film. That process, of turning a question into research into a finished story, became the whole idea behind LensPoint.
We want to bridge the gap between awareness and action by giving young creatives a platform and a community to tell stories worth hearing.
Mission
Teach students to use writing and film as mediums of storytelling advocacy — so that overlooked issues, underrepresented voices, and untold solutions get told by the people closest to them.
Roll 03 · The Programs
Two mediums. Two genres. Four paths.
Every student makes two choices: writing or film, and creative or research-based. Those two decisions branch into the four paths we teach — each one ending in a finished, published piece.
Journalism Writing
Investigative and academic research on a topic a student is genuinely curious about — how to approach experts, verify what they find, and write it up as journalism.
Creative Writing
The same research instinct, aimed at fiction, essay, or narrative nonfiction — using craft and voice to make an overlooked issue impossible to look away from.
Documentary Film
Interviewing, filming, and editing a short documentary — from first cold email to an expert, through production, to a cut that's ready to show an audience.
Creative Film
Narrative and experimental filmmaking — students write, shoot, and edit original short films that carry an idea or a piece of activism through story.
Roll 04 · One Cycle
Twelve weeks, start to showcase.
Students can join partway through and catch up, or jump straight into a second project if they finish early. Mentorship runs the full length of the program.
Intro to LensPoint
Students learn the basics of investigative and academic research, how to approach experts, and how to document findings in writing or film. They're introduced to all four paths and start choosing their medium and genre.
Starting your project
Individually or in groups, students commit to a direction and begin the storymaking process, continuing to build technique in their chosen medium.
Mentorship & resources
Direct supervision from LensPoint and mentors from OCSA as students draft, interview, film, or write. This stretch can be as short as a single day for creative writing, or several weeks for journalism and filmmaking.
Post-production & feedback
Students wrap their projects, get final feedback from mentors, and share work with peers for a last round of edits and review.
Wrap, showcase & distribution
Finished work is shared through a showcase, submitted to competitions, and posted to LensPoint's channels — and students graduate the cycle with a complete, published piece.
Site 01 · Hosted Sessions
Boys & Girls Club
LensPoint runs hands-on storytelling and filmmaking sessions with Boys & Girls Club members, working with both the Tween program and Keystone, the club's high-school track. Sessions are built around real production: students plan short scenes, take turns behind and in front of the camera, and practice interviewing each other on topics they choose themselves.
Our role is to bridge the gap between the ideas students already have and the technical skills — camera work, interviewing, basic editing — needed to turn those ideas into something finished. Older students have used the format to produce short PSAs on subjects like mental health, while younger members focus on the fundamentals: framing a shot, telling a story out loud, and working as a crew.
Site 02 · Weekly Sessions
OC Rescue Mission
OC Rescue Mission is where LensPoint runs its most consistent program: weekly sessions with kids and teens in the OC Rescue Mission community. Each session pairs a hands-on craft activity — students have built everything from pipe-cleaner flowers to short scenes on paper — with dedicated time for everyone to share a story out loud.
Because we're there every week, sessions build on each other in a way one-off visits can't. Students get comfortable with the format, comfortable with each other, and comfortable telling their own stories — which is the whole point.
Read the full story on OC Rescue Mission ↓
Site 03 · Talks & Sessions
El Sol Academy
At El Sol Academy, LensPoint runs classroom talks and sessions introducing K–8th grade students to journalism and creative writing. We walk through real examples — like a published student piece on wildfire evacuation — to show how personal experience becomes advocacy writing, then open the floor for students' own ideas.
The goal at El Sol is exposure: most students haven't thought about writing as a way to speak up about something that matters to them. By the end of a session, most have at least one idea for a story only they could tell.
Site 04 · Sessions & Festival Booth
OCEAA
LensPoint's relationship with OCEAA covers two things: hosted sessions with OCEAA students, and a booth at the OCEAA Spring Arts Festival. At the festival, our table ran a "Story Challenge" for kids and families walking by — a quick, guided prompt that turned into finished short stories on the spot, alongside sign-ups for students interested in joining a full LensPoint cycle.
Beyond the festival, we've also run storytelling sessions directly with OCEAA students, using the same journalism-and-creative-writing format we bring to our other partner sites, just tailored to OCEAA's community.
Partner Spotlight
LensPoint × OC Rescue Mission
A closer look at the one partner site where LensPoint shows up every single week — and why that consistency changes what's possible.
Sessions open with a hands-on craft activity — pipe-cleaner flowers, small paper projects, whatever gives hands something to do while conversation warms up. From there, the session shifts into structured sharing time: everyone at the table takes a turn telling a story, however short, however small. For older students, that same instinct carries into more ambitious work — short scenes, PSAs, and personal narrative writing, all with LensPoint mentors helping bridge the gap between an idea and the technical skill to finish it.
A few pieces from the table
How a session runs
Warm-up craft
A simple hands-on project — often yarn or pipe-cleaner work — that gets everyone at the table settled and talking before the sharing starts.
Sharing time
Everyone takes a turn sharing a story, out loud, to the group. No pressure to perform — just practice putting an experience into words.
Building the craft
For students ready to go further, mentors help turn that story into a finished piece — written, filmed, or both — over the following weeks.
Roll 06 · Who Runs This
Founded and run by two students, for students.
LensPoint is co-led by Aryan Sharma and George Weichel, both at Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), where their own training in writing and film became the blueprint for the program.
Aryan Sharma
A Creative Writing student at OCSA with a background in competitive writing, Aryan leads LensPoint's writing curriculum — journalism and creative writing alike — and its outreach to partner schools.
George Weichel
A Film & TV student at OCSA, George leads LensPoint's film curriculum — documentary and creative film — bringing production and editing craft down to a level any student can pick up.
Roll 07 · Get Involved
Bring LensPoint to your students.
Whether you run a school, a club, or an after-school program — or you're a student who wants to tell a story — there's a way in. Reach out and we'll figure out the right fit.