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Area students chronicle stories of local veterans

By ELI SEGALL

One group is making sure our veterans' legacies live on for generations to come. "Stories of Service," started in Sunnyvale in 1998, matches local high school students with Bay Area veterans. Students interview and digitally record the soldiers' experiences fighting overseas, and the harrowing, inspiring moments that came with it.

The students turn these interviews into online streaming movies, which can be viewed on the "Stories'" website.

Kartik Venkatraman, 15, is a sophomore at Harker School. He joined "Stories of Service" as a freshman and has since interviewed a World War II fighter pilot and the father of a soldier killed two years ago in Iraq.

"Most people learn about World War II in history books and just read the facts of what happened," Kartik said. "These people, they give you the emotions of the soldiers who were there."

Last year, at a "Stories of Service" gathering on Veterans Day, Kartik saw the Iraq veteran's father. The man, who had recently seen the movie Kartik made of their interview together, smiled and pulled Kartik into a big hug.

"That's why I do it," Kartik said. "It's for the satisfaction of the people telling their stories."

"Stories of Service" is part of the Digital Clubhouse Network, or DCN, a New York-based nonprofit group. Warren Hegg heads up "Stories," and his son Ryan Hegg is DCN's national director.

DCN was started in 1996, but the office, located in the heart of lower Manhattan, was forced to close after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Ryan Hegg, armed with an American history degree from Yale and experience working at Miramax, joined the group and has been at the helm ever since.

"Stories of Service," which moved from Sunnyvale to San Jose History Park two years ago, is a true fusion of history and modern technology. Students use Adobe Premiere to make the movies, and work from History Park's computer lab, which offers access to needed software and guidance from "Stories'" staff.

"It's kind of reinventing the oral history," Warren Hegg said. "We bring the greatest generation together with the latest generation. It's a way of honoring the legacy of our veterans."

The group is supported by a host of organizations, history groups and corporations. This year alone, the History Channel, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and Youth Service America--the country's largest network of youth volunteers--are helping to promote "Stories" and bring in more teens and veterans.

Local heavyweights have also stepped in. Hewlett-Packard has agreed to donate equipment to strengthen the group's technology, and The Morgan Family Foundation--Applied Material's nonprofit wing--has agreed to contribute $75,000 over the next three years.

To view student projects, visit "Stories of Service" at www.stories-of-service.org.