ASU alumnus Caleb Barclay is on a mission to break cultural stereotypes throughout the world.
Shortly after graduating from ASU in May 2009, Barclay started a project that aimed to cast a positive light on misinterpreted cultures.
The Peace Frame Initiative is a project comprised of videographers and photographers who create visual pieces about various groups and ethnicities around the world.
Barclay and his team are currently in the running for a $25,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Everything Challenge, a competition that funds individuals or groups with ideas that would have a positive impact on society.
Barclay’s group has met with members of the Muslim Student Association at ASU and leaders of mosques throughout the Valley in an effort to network their project.
If the team wins, members will use the grant money to fund the project, splitting money among equipment and travel expenses, website advertising and other costs.
For the Pepsi Challenge idea, the group aims to create seven video documentaries about Latino Americans and seven documentaries about Muslim Americans. They plan to advertise some of the videos on television and in movie theaters. They will also advertise all the videos on the Web.
The group’s Pepsi Challenge idea is featured online. The winners of the contest are chosen by the amount of votes that online viewers cast, and the top 10 most voted ideas receive grant money.
On Thursday evening, the group’s project was ranked 68th. Voting ends Jan. 31.
Barclay graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in architecture and design. Having taken several trips overseas, Barclay was given the opportunity to see first-hand how media misrepresented cultures, including his own.
Barclay said he was viewed as a “gung-ho American that was war-hungry.”
These experiences inspired him to change these stereotypes in the best way he knew how — through videography.
Bill Taggart, the business and promotions manager for The Peace Frame Initiative, said he helps Caleb focus the vision of his project into practical means.
A former New Jersey resident, Taggart was one of the millions personally affected by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he, like many, perceived Muslims in a stereotypical fashion.
However, after being exposed to ideas and goals behind The Peace Frame Initiative, Taggart became fully engaged in the project in hopes of transforming the minds of others.
Their efforts have not only caught the attention of social networks but public relations media outlets as well.
Barclay and Targgart’s group has even inspired the creation of a local website, We Care PR Blog.
The website’s founder, Ashlee Cain, came across Barclay and Taggart’s endeavor on Facebook. Cain’s friend wanted to write a press release about the group and eventually did so.
The Peace Frame Initiative was a “cool organization” that needed that press, Cain said.
She then got the idea to create a website that would help promote the work of nonprofit organizations.
The Peace Frame Initiative continues to inspire and motivate others “in the community, in the world and in the region,” Cain said.
Reach the reporter at cstarboa@asu.edu
