Students Create Whiteboard Animations

By Olivia Archiblad

As part of their creative writing projects in Dr. Olivia Archibald’s UNI 101 class this fall, students made  RSA animated-style videos in the O’Grady Library’s new multimedia center.  Dr. Belinda Hill, Associate Professor in the Education Department, directed the project.

Dr. Belinda Hill advises Sarah McCreary and Alexis Schupbach on their animation

RSA animations, also known as whiteboard animation and video scribing, involve an “artist” creating cartoon images on a whiteboard as a voice-over narrator explains a concept or, in the case of the UNI project, a personal narrative (we only see the artist’s hand and the whiteboard’s illustrations).

Brooks Ellingsen and Daniel Echtle work out their animation

In the UNI 101 project, students created whiteboard drawings that depicted creative nonfiction stories that they had written in an earlier UNI project.  Each student used an IPAD to create a stop-motion camera effect as the student drew the illustration representing events in the narrative, and then created a voice-over by developing a 1-2 minute telling of the story.

Gabriela Virgen and Emma work out their project

The project was one that, as with other assignments in the class, focused on creativity, imagination, and experimentation, while also encouraging Community as most of the students worked in pairs.

Shea Kelly and James Fielder prepare to start shooting their stories

How Saint Martin's Came to Be

Fr. Peter Tynan, O.S.B.

How did Saint Martin’s University get here? We often take this beautiful place for granted, but just you have a family history, Saint Martin’s has a family history. Why not take a moment to find it out?

On the lower level of the O’Grady Library, just outside the curriculum room you will find a display that talks about our school’s early history. Saint Martin’s comes from a long lineage of monastic schools. In 1890 monks from Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota heard about the need for priests and schools out in the newly established Washington State (1889). They first came to Tacoma and founded Holy Rosary Parish, whose steeple is easily recognizable from I-5. Once this base parish was established the monastic priest, Fr. William Eversman, began looking for a good location to build a school and monastery. The search was not easy. Land to the north was at a premium. An available location west of Centralia was deemed too remote. What to do?

Fr. William Eversman

Fortunately, the former Olympia mayor and businessman, A. H. Chambers, heard of the monks desire to build a school and felt it would benefit his community. So Chambers contacted the monks and used his connections to have some public land near the Lacey (then called Woodland) train station put up for auction so the monks could build there. Not everyone was excited to have Roman Catholic monks move into the area, however. Members of an anti-Catholic organization attempted to outbid the monks for the land. They failed because the auctioneer deemed the sale to be cash only, which the Chambers and the monks had fortunately brought with them.

A. H. Chambers

The monks began building in January 1895 and sent out a prospectus to towns in the region. Despite having a tuition of $100 plus fees only one student arrived in September at the newly finished schoolhouse, Angus McDonald. Fortunately for the school, more students began to come here and the rest, as they say, is history.

Caricature of Angus McDonald

Come down and learn more about our University’s beginnings at the O’Grady Library.