Herff Jones Sponsors Curriculum for New MTV Series Premiering Tues July 20

On Tuesday July 20 at 11pm EDT/PT, MTV will premiere a new weekly series called “If You Really Knew Me” based on the Challenge Day program.  Each episode will be shown on MTV multiple times during the week and streamed on MTV’s website.

“‘If You Really Knew Me’ is an incredibly authentic and compelling docu-series that takes us on a 24 hour journey through a high school’s social transformation. It shows us what happens when kids from various cliques decide to break down the walls that divide them and commit to change,” said Tony DiSanto, President of Programming from MTV. “It’s an intense and dramatic experience, but ultimately uplifting and universally relatable for all of us who have gone through high school or are about to.”

Each episode takes place at a different high school with its own set of issues and its own unique set of cliques. In the series premiere, viewers go inside a Northern California school divided by race and cliques, a symptom of a newly-diverse student body that has grown from 500 to 2,400 students in just 10 years. As the season progresses; the show profiles a variety of schools struggling with everything from cyberbullying to small town rumor mills.

Discussion Guides (sponsored by Herff Jones) can be downloaded from the Challenge Day website at: http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/

What’s this got to do with yearbooks?

  1. We all know that yearbook sales are directly related to school spirit. If your school is not participating in Challenge Day, maybe Yearbook could sponsor it! Visit the Challenge Day website for more info: http://www.challengeday.org/how-challenge-day-works.php
  2. Teambuilding is key to an efficient yearbook staff. Try watching the episodes together as a group, and downloading the discussion guides. Download the discussion guides here: http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/
  3. If your school is already participating, don’t forget to cover it in your yearbook! Make sure to interview the participants for their point-of-view!

Angela’s side note: I participated in a Challenge Day as a high school student (A LONG TIME AGO), and it was definitely worth it. Let’s just say a lot of tears and hugging were involved. I highly recommend it!

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