Rising East Ridge High freshmen, Shikela Ray and twin sisters, LaShunda and LaQuanda Kendricks, arrived at UTC's Upward Bound program in early June to embark on six-weeks of pre-collegiate experience.
Within the first week, the threesome were assigned to a creative life skills project, in which they were to tell a story to their classmates through visual projection. They wrote a script, which was supposed to be submitted to Black Entertainment Television for its Rap-It-Up Contest, but they missed the deadline for entry.
They came up with "The Domino Effect: How I Got AIDS," a short film about a young girl who was conceived by a mother who had contracted AIDS through sex with an infected, drug abusing partner.
The Kendricks, Ray and other Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science students also serve as actors.
The film will be shown publicly on Friday, June 30, at 1 p.m. in the University Center Auditorium in the UTC University Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
Upward Bound is a pre-college program for low-income, at-risk youth who attend Howard, Brainerd and East Ridge High Schools, and who wish to pursue post-secondary education. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.