LANSING, Mich. — Local businessman Doug Daigle, owner of American Flooring Holt, is significantly impacting some Holt High School students.
He's helping them financially and giving them some real-life business lessons.
Students like sophomore Autumn Walton say they get hands-on experience in audio, video and film production techniques partly because of Daigle.
Autumn is part of Greg Miller’s media technology class at Holt High School.
“I learned how to do animation because that was something that I wanted to incorporate into my project because I wanted to have something that stood out from everybody else," Autumn said.
Autumn says she was motivated to make the best project for not only an excellent grade but also the chance to impress Daigle.
It stems from Daigle's idea to help Holt High School students.
He says he approached Holt High School administrators with the idea of giving out a financial scholarship to students.
As Daigle came up with the idea for the scholarship, Miller says he was looking for an audio/video project for his students.
The plan turned into the perfect opportunity for his class.
“One of our requirements is to interact with industry folks. And one of the things that the state wants is a continued longitudinal, not just a one-time visit. So, what's a project we can meet with the client and have them check back in when we get a final product," Miller said.
The idea was for Miller’s students to create a television commercial that Daigle could run promoting his business.
Junior Hailey Grimes says creating the commercial took a lot of work, but she learned a lot.
“We had to make a commercial for American Flooring, and we like, we had already learned some techniques to use Premiere Pro. But we had to do a lot of our own research to figure out what to do for the commercial," Hailey said.
Daigle gave the student who created the best commercial a $1,000 scholarship. They could use it however they wanted as long as it would benefit their future goals.
Hailey says she initially thought Daigle was going to pick only one winner.
"Originally, he was only going to pick one winner. And then he said, no, I'll pick two and three winners. And then he decided to put everyone on TV but only give three people the scholarship, which I think is pretty incredible," Hailey said.
Autumn was one of the three scholarship winners.
“I was really thankful for it because I can put it towards things that could go for my future career like a camera because I really want to focus on photography," Autumn said. "But then, I can also use that for video photography, which is something that I'm going to be studying next year.”
Miller says he appreciates the opportunity Daigle gave his students.
"Doug's a great neighbor because he's supporting local schools. He's supporting students. He's joined our advisory committee, so he's doing more than just the commercials for whole public schools. But he is a champion for Holt," Miller said.
We agree. Thank you, Doug Daigle. You are this week’s Good Neighbor.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
