Close up with The Class
PBS docuseries executive produced by President Hurd follows high schoolers navigating the college search during COVID.
Photographs By (Top) Getty; (Film) The Class; (Screening) Matt Smith; (Diggs) Pete Mackey
Beginning in March, viewers were able to take in a sixpart documentary series that was executive produced by President Nicole Hurd. The Class, which is airing on PBS, follows six students in the graduating class of 2021 at Deer Valley High School in Antioch, Calif., as they navigate challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the struggles of housing insecurity, college applications, and financial instability. Hurd attended its premiere at the historic Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, Calif., with those she worked on the project, including actor, writer, and producer Daveed Diggs (pictured, above right, with Hurd) and filmmakers Jaye and Adam Fenderson of Three Frame Media.
Accessibility to education has long been a priority for Lafayette’s president: Twenty years ago, she founded the College Advising Corps, an organization that places recent college graduates in underserved high schools to steward students through the college application process. And with her vision, in 2023, Lafayette increased its no-loan threshold to $200,000, improving access to low-income and middle-class families without the weight of student loan debt.
In the docuseries, Mr. Cam, an adviser working with the College Advising Corps at Deer Valley, returns to his alma mater as a resource to these students and serves as a beacon of hope and positivity in their lives. “I am so grateful to be able to share this labor of love with the world,” Hurd says. “The stories of Mr. Cam and his students show firsthand the light and promise that young people bring to the world, and how increasing opportunity makes such a difference in our society.”
1.
On April 30, a group gathered at Lafayette’s Landis Cinema in Buck Hall to watch the first episode of the docuseries.
2.
After the campus screening, viewers participated in a Q&A with a guest panel including Deer Valley High School adviser and alumnus Cameron Schmidt-Temple, known by his students as Mr. Cam (pictured).
3.
“Our higher ed institutions are engines of opportunity and critical in a democracy,” Hurd said on a May broadcast of NewsNation, emphasizing that the filmmakers share this belief that colleges and universities improve the lives of students and the lives of others.
4.
When Diggs, a Tony and Grammy-award winner who portrayed the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton, visited campus last September, he participated in the “Theater and Social Justice” First- Year Seminar, talking to two dozen students about the role of the arts in public life. That night, he met with the campus community and shared his passion for education access and making art that speaks to the soul.
5.
All six episodes of The Class, beginning with “Senior Year” and ending with “Decision Day,” are available to watch at pbs.org/show/the-class.
