“When I talk to people out in the community, all I hear is how no one knew about it,” says Amanda Dillingham.

Dillingham is discussing her role as chair of the filmmaking program at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, a state-funded program that provides preprofessional summer curriculum to high school students. Every June, the Governor’s School takes on scores of rising juniors and seniors for intensive three-week programs in theater, dance, visual arts, music and filmmaking.

The program accepts private, public and home school students from different economic backgrounds from all across Tennessee. Auditions for the Governor’s School take place during January and February, with the program itself taking place each summer on the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro.

Each program is different, of course, but Dillingham explains how the filmmaking course works.

“We do a week of demos, and then the students all take a stab at writing a script and then they choose the top three or four, and we break them into groups to rewrite, produce, film and edit for a screening at the end of the program,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for students who don’t have a film program in their high schools but need portfolio material for college.”

Applications are currently open at the Governor’s School for the Arts website, but deadlines are coming up fast: Applications for the theater, dance and visual arts programs are due this Friday, Dec. 15, with vocal/instrumental music and filmmaking applications due Jan. 19. Not a kid, and don’t have one? You can still make a donation to the program via this link.

Find more info via the above video.