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March 24, 2014 – The critically acclaimed documentary “If You Build It” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 31 at Quigley Hall Auditorium at Allegheny College. The public is invited to this free screening.

A captivating look at a radically innovative approach to education, “If You Build It” follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest county in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives.

Living on credit and grant money and fighting a school board resistant to change, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long full-scale design-and-build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows 10 teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what’s possible.

Directed by Patrick Creadon and produced by Christine O’Malley and Neal Baer, “If You Build It” offers a compelling and hopeful vision for a new kind of classroom in which students learn the tools to design their own futures.

Salon calls the film “provocative, inspiring.” Indiewire says, “The film’s charm is in watching these unlikely kids quietly dream up big ideas, gaining confidence in their newfound abilities every step of the way.”

More information about “If You Build It,” including a trailer, can be found at www.ifyoubuilditmovie.com.

The film is being brought to Allegheny College through the efforts of the college’s Education Studies Steering Committee.