TLab Digital Storytelling Competition
The Transformative Education Lab Digital Storytelling Competition invites members of the Boston College community to create a 2–5 minute digital story about a moment or series of connected experiences that explores one or more key dimensions of formative education: wholeness, purpose, and community. Participants are encouraged to move beyond recounting events by reflecting on how the experience affected them, why it mattered, and how it connects to their growth and formation.
Digital storytelling is a short-form (2–5 minute) multimedia narrative that combines images, video, text, music, and voice to share a personal story. The most important element of a digital story is reflection. Rather than simply summarizing events, a digital story invites viewers into your experience and explores what that experience meant to you. Your digital story should feel authentic and personal. Whenever possible, we encourage you to use images, videos, and materials that you have created or captured yourself, as this helps ground the story in your lived experience.
- 2-5 minute digital story (upload video file or provide shareable link via Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
- Title for your digital story
- Brief written description (up to 150 words) explaining the formative experience your story explores and why it was meaningful to you
- Specific people, places, or moments pivotal to your experience
- Your multimedia choices (e.g. images, video, text, music) – How does each element contribute to meaning, and how do they work together to strengthen your story?
- Your voiceover – How will your narration communicate reflection and create personal connection with your audience?
- How do you want your audience to feel during and after watching your story? What elements (e.g. music, pacing, sound effects) will support that intention?
- Your central takeaway – and how you will highlight it in your story.
- Depth of reflection
- Narrative clarity
- Effective use of multimodal elements
- Audience engagement and impact
- Authenticity and creativity
Grand Prizes (2): $500 each
Runner-Up Prizes (3): $300 each
Honorable Mentions (10): $100 each
The Contest Prompt:
We invite you to create a digital story about a moment – or a series of connected experiences – that demonstrates one or more key dimensions of formative education: wholeness, purpose, and community.Ìý
- Wholeness – supporting the full development of the person across intellectual, emotional, ethical, and spiritual dimensions.ÌýÂ
- Purpose – helping learners discern who they are and how they are called to participate in a broader moral order.Ìý
- Community – fostering a sense of connection and responsibility within a community, both as a context for the discernment of life purpose and as a commitment to further the common good.
Your story should move beyond recounting events to explore how this experience affected you, why it mattered, and how it reflects one or more of these key dimensions
Story Ideas to Consider
- An experience that helped you grow in more than one area of your life — academically, personally, relationally, or in other dimensions.Ìý
- An experience where one of your passions, interests, or talents became connected to something larger than yourself.
- A time you felt a deep connection to a community you belong to.