Past Projects:
ZOOM INternational Evaluation

In early 2005, CRANE conducted a program evaluation of ZOOM INternational: A Photo Journal. ZOOM IN is a project of the University of British Columbia’s International House that used photography as a creative medium to facilitate dialogue, foster community building, and to create broader awareness of the issues that international students face on the UBC campus.

ZOOM INternational presented an excellent opportunity to study how creativity and the arts are being used to build connections right here in our own UBC campus community. As such, the evaluation not only met the needs of the International House in evaluating program effectiveness, but also CRANE’s desire to identify and observe working examples of intercultural community building through the arts.

The evaluation was conducted using the following methods:

• Participant observation during meetings between the ZOOM organizer and one of the groups.
• Observation during the International Week 2005 exhibition.
• Focus group with a small sample of ZOOM project participants.
• Survey of ZOOM project organizer.

ZOOM IN brought together students from over 20 countries to share their diverse experiences with each other and with the wider UBC community through the lens of a camera.  The process and the product helped generate discussion among and between groups of participants. Participants found this to be an extremely meaningful experience in terms of both self expression and making connections with others.