Can you tell me and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Grant: So I was born in New Mexico. I pretty much grew up in Tucson, Arizona, which is where I am now. I was a preschool director and teacher for about ten years. I guess it was about ten years ago when I got my first Master's degree in film and digital technology from Chatham University in Pittsburgh in 2011. I sore I would never go back to the east coast but then DMDL came into my life. It was the perfect program for me.

How did you go from preschool teacher to film?

Grant: Preschool has always been a passion of mine. My mom actually is a preschool director. She runs a preschool still to this day.She's the one who got me into it. I went to the University of Arizona for my undergrad. At about nineteen, she's like "you need to start doing this". I had always worked with kids before. But once I started doing that it became my love-it became my career path. But I was always obsessed with television and media, so I went to Chatham. I ended up coming back to the preschool and started implementing video and other forms of media in the preschool setting. That was when I found my little niche, but I'm was still in a very small market. That was I found the DMDL program, I thought this [program] would advance my career, by going back to school. I'm obsessed with school for whatever reason. I loved packing on debt. I moved out to New York 2015.

You started the program in 2015?

Grant: Yeah. I think so. I think that seems right.

Did you graduate in 2017?

Grant: Yes

What made you chose this program?

Grant:I chose the program because I wanted to delve into kids media. I was definitely one of the few who focused on media and early childhood education. There was just me and one other classmate,everyone else was pretty much higher education. She actually became a very good friend.

I was obsessed with Mr.Rogers, and a personal hero of mine,Angela Santomero, she's the one behind Blues Clues, and Daniel Tigers Neighborhood. I wanted to follow in their path.I ended up creating a kids television show,focused on yoga for my thesis.

I actually pitched it to Angela Santomero, once i had the opportunity to meet her for coffee a couple of times and got her insight. Who is an amazing person. I had an option to work for her but she encouraged me to go out on my own path. So that's sort of what Ive done for better or for worse.

So what was your goal for DMDL program?What was one thing you were going for?

Grant :My goal was to create a new form of children's television. I want to start a new wave of children's television

How has your schooling at NYU and DMDL helped you in your current situation?

I think what was great about DMDL is that every person had a different track. It wasn't this one thing that you need to follow. You were able to customize your experience. I took the core classes and after that I had an independent study that focused on just early childhood. I actually focused on children's television, which was one of my courses.The program was tailoring everything I wanted. I could take classes outside of the DMDL program, so I took a couple of classes at Steinhardt, and ITTP.

DMDL is that building block where you could take your passion as far as you want to take it.

Now that you're building your company, were you lacking any specific skill or information that you should have known from the DMDL? Is there anything that would have been beneficial for you?

I think having more of the opportunity to meet people in my field.I had a course where they had someone come in from different {career} areas and they would come in and do presentations. I think it would have been more helpful to have more people come to campus as opposed to the one class.

Tell us more about your career. What aren now?

Grant: So life took an unexpected turn. I was going through the first semester of thesis, while talking to Maaike I mentioned I was practicing yoga several time a week and she suggested pitching a kids yoga show.

So I enrolled in teacher training while I was in my thesis and sort of progress from there. I never wanted to teach adults, I always wanted to teach kids and that's what I still till this day.

But as I was doing teacher training and I went through mentorship, which is the next stage where you start teaching small community classes. I started teaching at studio near NYU. At that time a lot of the teachers needed photos. Thats a big thing in that field of teachers. Its a big thing that you promote yourself on instagram.

Like I said video was my background but I had taken photos of kids in preschool settings so I gave it a shot. It spiraled from there, and I ended up creating a media company.I ended up traveling the world, and taking photos and videos at yoga retreats. I actually just published my first book, along side my fiance.

As much as I enjoy media and photography, its always been about kids media. So I started a kids yoga program, called Yogie Land. Its a live music kids yoga class. I started that program about ten months ago. Its different from a lot of other yoga classes. I wanted to create something that allowed kids to have multiple things happening at once. Its live music, its storytelling ,yoga mixed with puppets and educational learning games for older children. It starts programing for kids from six months and goes to eight years old. I have a friend of mine who wrote all original music.

Before COVID the program was picking up all around the city. We haven't done classes in a while, but this was everything i had been doing. Its was leading up to my ultimate goal.

With COVID is fast tracked everything since everyone has shifted and moved to online video.That was my original goal I've envisioned it as something worldwide that you can take live and on-demand classes.

Wow, What's the name of your media company?

Grant: It called Grant Henry Media.

What is the name of your book?

The name of the book is called My Yoga My City

How did you come up with this idea?

Grant: I actually met my fiance at the yoga studio. She is a yoga teacher. We came up with idea that we wanted to showcase the beauty and acceptance of yoga. We noticed this saturation of yoga and instagram, specifically social media. You needed to look a certain way. You needed to have this amazing practice. All the photos and video that were show didn't subscribe to most people who practice yoga or interested in practicing so we wanted to showcase the diversity and inclusiveness 108 is a sacred number in yoga. We ended up photographing over 108 Yogi's in all parts of the new york city. We wanted all shapes, size, color, different ages and different skill levels. We took people from our community, some people through nominations and even people we looked up to. It's cool to see that mix of people who are really well know and then people who have never taken a photo before while showcasing pretty much every iconic spot in New York City. We plan to have multiple iterations in other iconic cities. We donating 20% of the proceeds to a non-profit called Exhale to Inhale. It brings trauma-informed yoga to women who have been domestically and physically abused.

This sounds amazing !

Do you have any words of advice for those in the middle of pursuing a degree or for those who are just about to start the program?

I wish I would've utilized the resources that are available in the city. I came across the Children's Media Association . Its a network of professionals who work in children's media. I found out about it at the tail end of the program. I wish I would've known about that at the beginning of the program.

It created all these avenues for me,Thats how i meet Angela Santomero and other people i looked up to. Having the NYU grad student brand and offering my services, that's how i became the administrator for the New York Chapter. I wouldn't have been able to make these connections. DMDL allowed me to get to that point.

Once you get into grad school especially in New York City, NYU can only do but so much. It is up to you to take that next step- take that initiative to put yourself out there. Try to meet people and find a way to bridge that gap. I'm a very quiet person. It took a lot for me to reach out to people.

I've learned in the past three years, 99 out of a 100 times someone is not going to pay any attention to me. But it's just that one person that you need to believe in what you're doing.