Newtown Student Learns From An American Hero

By Eliza Hallabeck

It started with a challenge as eighth grade social studies teacher Ron Chivinski faced his Newtown Middle School class in January. If the students wanted extra credit during the semester this was the golden ring to reach for.

Justina Paproski, now in her freshman year at Newtown High School, went home that day and looked into the extra credit assignment, but she never told Mr Chivinski that she liked what she saw. She contacted people, tried out for the project and did not inform Mr Chivinski she had accepted his challenge until the end of the school year in June.

Now as Justina balances her high school schedule with soccer, she is waiting to see the product of her efforts from eighth grade on television.

CPTV has not announced the date it will air the Young American Heroes made for television movie on Frederick Douglass, but it will air at some point this fall. In March the documentary, which tells the story of Frederick Douglass from childhood, will air nationally on PBS.

Young American Heroes tells real stories about young people from the past, by using primary documents to show young Americans doing extraordinary things during crucial times in American history, according to Young American Heroes. The program focuses on different figures for each installment of the series, and the first one to air will be the show about Frederick Douglass.

When Mr Chivinski told his class that the project was looking for students from across Connecticut to participate in the filming, Justina went home and looked up more information.

“I was kind of excited because I was in drama at the middle school,” said Justina.

She said she was sold on the project when she saw a video from an episode that was done. The video looked well put together, and she said she was impressed. The project was filmed, produced, and created entirely in Connecticut.

Justina said she did not know much about Frederick Douglass before she started working with Young American Heroes, because they had just started learning about that section of history in class.

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, and, after the death of his mother, he was moved around to different owners until he reached Baltimore, Md., where he was taught to read by the wife of his owner. When he escaped from another owner in 1837, he made his way up to New York, and eventually much further. He wrote an autobiography called, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, and published it in 1845.

“I learned that he played a really big part in the abolition of slavery,” said Justina.

Justina, who said she likes learning American history now, said she found herself paying more attention in class after she had participated in the project.

“Frederick Douglass grew up as a slave,” said Justina, while describing why she is now impressed by the historical figure, “and in his life time slavery was abolished. And he made that happen.”

After researching the program, Justina said she went through an audition process to be in the movie. On the day she was scheduled to participate she showed up to Roton Middle School in Norwalk and sat there waiting to be called in for the scene.

“The part she was in was filmed in a classroom,” said Shirley Paproski, Justina’s mother who drove her to Norwalk so she could participate in the movie.

Mr Chivinski said Justina was already a great student before he learned that she had participated in his Young American Heroes challenge, and afterwards he was amazed that she had taken him up on it and had kept it a secret.

She was only on set for one day, but she said she learned a lot in just a small amount of time. She spent roughly eight hours working on the set. The director would come in and tell the students waiting to be in the movie what they should expect, she said, and Justina found it exciting. Lights were set up across the classroom for the filming, and Justina said she was taken back at the sight of them when she entered.

“Now I’ve learned it takes years between the editing process and filming a movie,” said Justina. She added that the eight hours she was there was spent filming just minutes of the actual production.

If Justina had the choice of a young American hero for the subject of another movie she said, “I would choose a woman like Rosa Parks, because women had double the challenges back then.”