ABOUT SHINY GEMS

We make the media we teach young people to understand.

Shiny Gems is built by award-winning media producers who are also experienced youth facilitators — a rare combination, and exactly what a media-literacy program should be built on.

A diverse group of people seated in a classroom or conference room, some reading and others listening attentively. A woman in a red top and glasses is sitting with a notebook, while other individuals are engaged with papers. A man in a green sweater stands at the back near a bulletin board with papers, taking notes. The room has large windows letting in natural light.

OUR STORY

Why we built this

Young people are growing up in a media environment few classes are built to prepare them for. A growing number of states now require media-literacy instruction, but most schools have no trained teacher and little room in the schedule. We saw a need most schools weren't equipped to meet — and a better way to meet it: teach media literacy through the character strengths students already carry, delivered peer-to-peer, so the older students grow as much as the younger ones. Shiny Gems is the result.

A young woman holding a clapperboard and a man with a camera wearing headphones smiling in a room with musical instruments on the wall.
Two young girls appear to be filming a portrait by a lake with a camera and lighting equipment, surrounded by trees and nature.
People involved in a film or video production inside a room with windows, including a person on the left holding a boom microphone, a person with a camera on a tripod, and a young woman standing in front of the camera. Others are seated or standing nearby, with a person on the right holding papers and a reflector, while a crew member is seen in the foreground.
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The team’s superpower

Most media-literacy content is written by people outside the industry. Ours is built by people inside it — a team whose work has appeared on PBS, NPR, CNN, HBO, Netflix, ESPN, and Apple TV+, paired with real classroom and youth-facilitation experience. Being on the inside is what lets us teach clearly: we've seen how media gets made — the craft and the manipulation alike — and we hold our own work to the same questions we teach students to ask. We're here to help young people see through media, not sell them on it.

Meet the team

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Daniel Rinaldi

Founder & Executive Director

Award-winning multimedia producer and project manager with 12+ years across PBS, NPR, iHeart, PRX, and CBC. ALA Honor (PBS Kids' Jamming on the Job), 3× Telly Award, 2025 iHeart Podcast Award. Bilingual EN/ES.

Professional woman with braided black hair, wearing a gray blazer, looking at the camera with a slight smile.

Nwandi Lawson

 Lead Curriculum Developer

Emmy Award–winning TV producer (CNN, Turner, Georgia Public Broadcasting) and former middle-school teacher. Founder of The Virtues Collective, a virtues-based train-the-trainer consulting firm. MBA (Emory); magna cum laude, Howard.

Headshot of a man with dark hair, slight beard, wearing a blue shirt and a white undershirt, in front of a dark background.

Jordan Baese

Filmmaker & Facilitator

Two-time Sports Emmy–winning filmmaker and editor (Apple TV+, ESPN, PBS, FOX; SXSW and Tribeca selections). 10+ years teaching filmmaking to youth and leading adolescent mentorship groups. Bilingual EN/ES.

A woman smiling with white glasses, red lipstick, and hoop earrings, wearing a sleeveless top with a red and white pattern, with shoulder-length dark hair and a gray background.

María Owens-Fajardo

Creative Producer

Creative producer with credits across PBS, Netflix, HBO, A24, and the NFL; three Telly Awards (PBS NC Mini Fab Science Lab). Teaching-artist and community youth-facilitation background. Bilingual EN/ES.

"Loominate Creative Agency"

Digital Experience Partner

In collaboration with Loominate Creative

Our Approach

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Educators shape this work

We're media-makers, and we're also teachers. Our lead curriculum developer, Nwandi Lawson, is a former middle-school teacher whose career is built on virtues-based, train-the-trainer methodology, and across the team we've spent years facilitating youth programs in classrooms and communities worldwide. An advisory board of experienced educators reviews the curriculum, keeping it grounded in what works with real students. The field takes the work seriously, too: the American Montessori Society and the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) have brought us in to speak and train their teachers.

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What guides us

Our pedagogy is virtues-based character education and social-emotional learning, delivered through a globally-deployed, community-based youth-facilitation methodology used in more than 100 countries. The gems — creativity, patience, responsibility, truthfulness — are universal character strengths every person already carries. The program fits a secular school and a faith-based one alike. We're always happy to talk about where the methodology comes from; it's just never the point. The point is the students.

Bring this team to your school

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