Explore Locally, Excel Digitally (ELED) After-School Program is a 15-week series of workshops for high-school students passionate about creating and learning using media tools and popular culture in relationship to their own lives. Each session is highly participatory, utilizing the skills and competencies of the New Media Literacies and Social and Emotional Learning. Opportunities to practice these skills will emerge organically through the activities presented each day. Participants master the primary components of digital citizenship –social and emotional competence, community awareness, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and ethical appreciation – by mapping their own communities, considering ethical issues relating to these spaces, and harnessing digital media to enrich and express their findings. Key civic engagement principles such as reciprocity and co-configured learning also figured prominently in the program. The development of individual digital portfolios will exemplify and ultimately assess students' understanding of these skills and practices.