I am Cody Ashford, Media and Performing Arts Career Technical Education (CTE) Teacher at the Madera Technical Exploration Center (MadTEC). I have the awesome job of collaborating with eighth-grade students in our district to bring their creative ideas to life in the form of screenplays, short films, commercials, video games, and more. I am a Clovis native and studied Film and Screenwriting at Biola University in Los Angeles. After college, I worked for companies like Marvel, Warner Bros., and Universal. After teaching film at a summer camp, my passion for teaching was ignited—leading me back to Clovis, where I taught theater for five years.
After transferring to MadTEC in 2021, I pursued my own filmmaking goals alongside my students. In 2022, I sold my first screenplay and had the opportunity to direct a sci-fi horror film, Drive Back. We filmed our project near Yosemite and in the surrounding Madera and Fresno County foothills. Drive Back was released in theaters and streaming in November 2024, topping the Amazon charts and winning at several festivals. I hope it’s only my first of many movies.
I was absolutely floored when I was awarded Student Champion. I try to have my students “learn by doing”—providing opportunities to create. I act as a coach and mentor, letting students in on my process for my own real-world projects. I love watching them succeed in taking risks to make their stories come to life in collaboration with their peers. I also have the best co-teachers I could ask for.
While at camp, I heard one of those quotes that stuck with me, but I can’t remember who said it. It’s something like, “You discover more about someone during an hour of play than a year of conversation.” I strive to make a classroom environment where that’s always the culture.