After three years of learning to tell stories through video, a group of Denton High School students will finally present their work to someone outside the school.

The Free Minds, Free People national conference promotes sharing knowledge, experiences and strategies to help students understand some of the challenges facing their communities. The conference runs today through Sunday in Houston.

Five students from Denton High’s PALS — Peer Assistance, Leadership and Service — program will present their films and discuss their experiences regarding their use of research, media and storytelling.

In addition to young people, the conference will include researchers, teachers, community activists and parents, said Mariela Nuñez-Janes, one of the program’s co-directors and a professor at anthropology at the University of North Texas.

It is the second time that the Denton High group has been invited to the conference, she said, but the first event was in Chicago and the group could not afford to go.

This year, however, Katie Carr, 18, Lauren Kruse, 16, Elisa Martinez, 17, Katrina Garcia, 16, and Jessica Solis, 18, will travel to the conference to present their projects.

“It is kind of cool to go to a conference where more people than just your class can see your work,” Carr said.

What began in 2007 when one student attended a digital storytelling workshop grew into the digital storytelling component of the PALS class at Denton High School. Tim Sanchez teaches that class and co-directs the project with Nuñez-Janes. Shaun Chapa, a UNT graduate student, helps with the class.

This year, 17 students worked on films based mostly on family experiences. The five attending the conference will present videos dealing with topics including alcohol abuse, the effects of divorce on children and tributes to parents or other family members.

Before the students created their two-minute digital stories, they participated in a story circle during a PALS class.

“I asked them to share their best and worst moments, something they were comfortable sharing,” Sanchez said.

The story circle led to close relationships between the 17 students, Sanchez said.

Martinez, who has been in the U.S. for eight years, said the story circle helped the daily interactions between her classmates.

“It’s amazing what we get to share with other people, because they probably feel the same way you feel and you get to see how you are not alone and the only one struggling. ... Maybe it’s not on the same issue as you, but it’s their struggle,” she said. “You be there for them and be supportive, and you get closer.”

Garcia created a video dedicated to her mom. Participating in the story circle gave her a different perspective, she said, adding that it made her think and gave her a sense of curiosity.

“It’s emotional, but not in the bad way,” Garcia said. “We had mixed emotions; we were constantly opening up to each other.”

Sanchez said that although the students shared explicit details of their lives during their story circle experience, the finished digital stories were different.

“They get to choose what they want to discuss in their video,” Nuñez-Janes said. “There were a lot of thank-yous we noticed; there was also pretty strong stuff. That’s why it was hard.”

Sanchez said they will work on getting more happy stories next year, since the majority of the digital projects were somber in nature.

After the students completed the story circle, they worked to finish their pieces during a weekend in November. They spent two days finishing their scripts and then putting everything together in digital form.

Sanchez said that because of the PALS project’s popularity, two classes will be offered in the fall.

KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com .