St. Annes students get communicating with local opportunities
FINAL REPORT ON EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING WEEK:
The province-wide observance of the successful connections made between employers and students via hands-on learning opportunities.
DAY 3
Closing the celebration of Experiential Learning Week, 38 students from St. Anne Catholic High School focused on Communications through tours of the The Windsor Star, St. Clair Centre for the Arts and the St. Clair MediaPlex.
Students first took a look at The Windsor Star's printing plant, learning the duties behind printing a paper including sorting, quality control and paper recycling. A total of 25 full-time press operators and 60 part-time labour workers publish the paper six days a week, Monday through Saturday. Recently, distribution of the paper has decreased from 100,000 copies to 65,000 due to the transforming news world into digital conversion.
After seeing how the paper is made, the next stop was content development; visiting reporters, editors, sales and advertising professionals at The Windsor Star's downtown location. Gathering around the Star's smart board and news ticker, central to the reporters work station, the students hear about what it takes to become a lucrative reporter; English, curiosity, and a willingness to learn something new everyday. Those interested in the field of news reporting should consider a program focused on Journalism, which could be a college-level education, but a university degree can assist with successful employment.
The students were then introduced to the changing field of Journalism through the training provided at St. Clair's MediaPlex. Convergence Journalism; storytelling through online, print, radio and television, is the focus of this program and the way of the future for reporting news. Students are expected to report on all platforms and produce stories for The Converged Citizen and the program's YouTube channel . The facility and program is the only one of it's kind in Canada, with two other similar programs existing in Germany and South Carolina. Prioir to graduating, students can try out the dual credits offered in photojournalism and radio reporting.
Veronique Mandal, program coordinator, suggests students apply early and work on their portfolio submission; showcasing writing talent and video skills. See more about the program and requirements.
If news reporting isn't your field of choice, the downtown St. Clair Centre for the Arts campus offers Advertising and Graphic Design. In Advertising, emphasis is placed on the case method, allowing students to solve real advertising problems and develop the related materials. Those interested in this field should be creative thinkers and problem solvers.
The Graphic Design program will have you creating and illustrating on a variety of platforms and multimedia applications. Creative students with an ability to draw and adhere to tight deadlines are encouraged to apply and submit a portfolio. In 2012, the program will revise its curriculum to provide more web-based instruction that competes with changing technology. To see more about this program, click here.
Like most college programs, internships are available to provide students with a look at potential work environments. With the added bonus of typically smaller class sizes, relationships can also be built with instructors, who are industry leaders themselves. Learning to network within the community and the classroom is an additional skill acquired by successful students.
To see salary expectations and a list of related occupations, search the Working in Canada tool, for instructions on using this tool watch this YouTube video.
Check out more on the week's tours:
- "A look at Experiential Learning Week with Passport to Prosperity"
- "Local Teachers learn all things Tech in Windsor-Essex"
See the photos:
Special thanks to guest bloggers from the Southwestern Ontario Industry Education Council and the connections made from our local Employer Registry.
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