One of the projects that has been near and dear to my heart during my time at MAPSA is the Michigan Charter School Awards. In this program, we collect private nominations from charter school educators, family members, students, alumni, and advocates for two award categories: teachers and school administrators (Principal or similar role). After an open application period for any nominee, we internally screen applicants to get 10 semifinalists in each category, then a panel of external judges selects first our top 5 finalists in each category, and eventually our winners. When I began leading this project two years ago, my primary goal was to transform it into a digital storytelling powerhouse, earning us key engagement on social platforms through beautiful, high-quality video storytelling, and even strengthening earned traditional media coverage. As an advocate for public education, it is also a tremendous honor to work so closely with educators over the course of the project. Each year, the digital engagement results continue to grow - and as we learn, we continue to adapt and improve with each cycle. In the past two cycles, COVID has challenged our ability to get into school buildings for filming - but we’ve adapted. This year, we resumed in-person filming via a film location in Lansing, and used the “Instagram Takeover” strategy to allow each of our ten finalists to give us the inside look at their school, and their story.