The EmVisionaries

Tariana V. Little ’12, G’17 and life partner Jonas Meyer ’14 love to tell stories—especially when those stories can help communities and companies make a difference.

BY VANESSA CHATTERLEY

THE PAIR CO-FOUNDED EMVISION PRODUCTIONS IN 2013,

a Boston-based media boutique that helps visionary organizations convey how they’re changing the world. Recently named one of the largest minority-owned businesses in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal, EmVision touts itself as providing “media with a mission” to organizations locally and nationally.

“To do the work that we do at [EmVision], through video storytelling and profiling people or leaders in the community, you have to have a hunger to know about people and to know what moves them,” said Little. “We operate in all these different communities that influence how we see the world, how we show up, what matters to us.”

Their clients—called “EmVisionaries”—range from grassroots nonprofits and social enterprises to government agencies and global corporations. Together Little and Meyer help companies convey their vision and values through immersive video content. Their portfolio includes organizations like The Boston Foundation, Amplify Latinx,

Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation, Boston Impact Initiative, the City of Chelsea, and Hasbro.

Using their media platform to “give forward,” the team launched a grant program in 2020 to partner each year pro bono with one to two small, local non-profit organizations led by people of color. This past year, Little and Meyer partnered with Love Your Magic, a grassroots organization committed to the healthy development of Black and Brown girls.

Before celebrating the agency’s 10th anniversary next year, Little and Meyer wanted to expand their company’s impact further. To accomplish this, Little said, the team did some serious reflecting.

“What do we want to do with the success that we’ve had? How do we want to contribute to impact beyond just the organizations that we work with?” she said. “We have this vision of wanting to continue to leverage our platform for impact and doing things that matter.”

They ultimately found a home for that vision—one that will support UMass Boston students for years to come. Earlier this year, the pair committed $25,000 to establish the EmVision Social Impact Scholarship Fund to support students in their capstone year of the Critical Ethnic and Community Studies (CECS) graduate program. Additionally, scholarship recipients will be presented with mentorship and applied opportunities with EmVision.

Little said that the decision to establish the scholarship came from her own positive experience at UMass Boston. As a queer, mixed-race woman and a first-generation college graduate from a working-class Dominican-German immigrant family, Little witnessed early on how academic environments can be supportive or exclusionary spaces for students from underserved backgrounds. It wasn’t until she enrolled at UMass Boston that she found a dynamic and diverse community that helped her flourish. During her undergraduate studies and in the CECS program, mentors provided her with opportunities and resources to mobilize her lived experiences as strengths, be it for producing her honors thesis research or a digital story. Little credits CECS-affiliated faculty Ester R. Shapiro and Shirley S. Tang as influences on her journey and on EmVision’s Social Impact Storytelling framework rooted in person-centered authenticity, assets, and action.

“There was a very clear alignment between our business and what we’re about, and what the [CECS] program is about, and how they support students to be changemakers in the community and in the world,” Little said.

Meyer echoed these sentiments.

“As an immigrant student from Germany, it was UMass Boston peers who shaped my experience on campus and in the community, and gave me a sense of belonging,” he said. “I’m not only giving to the school. I’m foremost giving to its students.”

“The significance of this gift underscores the value of the CECS program for those committed to positive social change and service to community,” said CECS director Cedric J. Woods, who also serves as director of the Institute for New England Native American Studies. “Dr. Little’s and Mr. Meyer’s gift will support ongoing generations of scholars to do so in the places where they are valued and there is a need and desire for truly collaborative research and activism.”

“I would love for students to have an easier time navigating through college. Hopefully with this gift, they have less of a financial burden and can fully focus on making the most of their education and bringing their full selves to the classroom as a community,” Little said. “It’s a transformative way, a lasting way, to make a difference.”

The EmVision team poses with Ivanna Solano, founder and executive director of Love Your Magic, and participant Camille TorresVega. From left: Edwin Cabrera, Tariana Little, Torres-Vega, Solano, Jonas Meyer, and Doga Somer.