Prom night in portraits
Night to Shine is a prom for people over age 14 with special needs. The event debuted in Central Pennsylvania in February at Calvary Harvest Fields, a church in Boalsburg.
For many of the participants it was the first time they'd been to a prom. Among the most popular experiences was a chance for participants and their guests to grab silly things and head to the photo booth to make video portraits.
The Central Pennsylvania Night to Shine was sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. More than 500 churches hosted the event across the country on Feb. 8, 2018. Planners at Calvary Harvest Church say they are planning to host the event again on Feb. 8, 2019.
About the Contributors
Emeling Navas
Senior / Print/Digital Journalism
Emeling Navas is an aspiring multimedia journalist from Miami, Florida. She has interned and written lifestyle articles in Buenos Aires, Argentina for The Bubble, a media startup that caters to expats. She currently writes for The Daily Collegian as the food and health reporter and has written for the politics beat as well. This past summer she interned for WPSU as a marketing intern interviewing Vietnam veterans for The Time to Heal Project. In the past she has participated in the Short Doc Workshop creating a short video on a Penn State hijabi student from Turkey.
Baidi Wang
Senior / Photojournalism
Baidi Wang, is from Shanghai, China. She aspires to be a visual journalist or a filmmaker. She enjoys producing stories that convey emotion in a compelling way. She is interning as a production assistant for documentary filmmaker Boaz Dvir. She is a photographer and videographer for The Underground at Penn State. She has produced video stories for the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop at Syracuse University and for the Keystone and Short Doc workshops at Penn State.
