Making movies on her phone or designing her very own t-shirt, mass media teacher Kadesha Bonds can truly do it all, and she’s more than happy to impart some of her knowledge to you.  

With her sister Lisa Bonds’ help, Bonds is hosting two Summer Acceleration Academy courses for Wilson students to attend; Learn How to Shoot a Short Film With Your Phone or Tablet and Learn how to Design and Print Your Own T-shirt, which will both be half-day courses and take up the entire nine days of the academy. 

Bonds’s mass media classes have always been popular among Wilson students and that popularity hasn’t declined since online school, so Bonds decided to make a condensed version of it accessible to students as a Summer Acceleration course.

Along with film making, Bonds has another niche skill in her arsenal: T-shirt designing and printing. In fact, Bonds co-owns a T-shirt company with her sister. Knowing that they work well together, that pair agreed to utilize their collaborative shirt-making abilities to make a second course in the afternoon session. 

Students who take Learn How to Print Your Own T-shirt will not only get the chance to make their own shirt but might also help in designing the staff T-shirt.

Bonds’s goal is to have her students return home with a product they created, whether that be a short film or a T-shirt or two, and possibly even provide them with the skillset to make some money off of their new skills (if that’s something they’re interested in).

“We’ve seen in the pandemic, a lot of the creative arts and stuff has kind of [gotten us through quarantine]…and a lot of people found passions,” said Bonds. With this in mind, she decided she wanted to provide an outlet for students to develop them through the Summer Acceleration Academy, while also doing what she loves.

 “We just took what we love to do—our passions—and just said, ‘hey, let’s make a course.’ I think this will be great for our young people and kind of give them a creative outlet,” Bonds said.