NEWS RELEASE
CONFEDERATION COLLEGE
*************************
THUNDER BAY – Through a collaboration with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber’s After Business on Wednesday, Nov. 20 served as a platform for second-year students in Confederation College’s Digital Media Production program to participate in an experiential learning opportunity.
During the event, a selection of community organizations, alongside representatives from departments and programs within Confederation College, pitched their project ideas to the DMP students with the hopes of being selected by the right student group to turn their visions into reality. Each project centred on a video-based production, ranging from public service announcements to a series of instructional videos. The project will be completed in the winter semester as part of the students’ Community/Corporate Projects “Working in the Real World” course.
“We were so excited to work together with the Chamber to create an opportunity like this, both for our students and for the community organizations they will support,” said Michele McManus, Program Coordinator of the DMP program. “For many of our students, this is the first time a client is coming to them where the end product will be actively rolled out to achieve a specific goal. It’s an important experience for them in preparing for their careers. We are grateful to our clients and the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce for their investment in our students’ learning.”
2nd year Digital Media Production students with community and College pitch partners. (Supplied)Students echoed their excitement for the chance to work with real clients to create something that will have a lasting impact. “The opportunity to work with real clients to build on our portfolio is invaluable,” said second-year DMP student Mitchell Ringos. “The fact that we get to hear everyone’s pitches and decide what we want to work on is really cool. We know some projects will be more creative and some will be more technical, so we can decide based on what we’re most interested in or what we think we’ll be best. It’s a great way to apply what we’ve done with our learning up until now.”
Fellow student Adam Whitney added “This gives us the chance to work in professional space with people who actually have experience in the media. We regularly work with our classmates and instructors or find our own clients for school projects, but this time the clients are coming to us, which is a totally new atmosphere. Because they’re external clients and people we don’t know, the pressure is higher for us to perform, which will push us outside of our comfort zones and improve our skills so we’re more prepared for our careers.”
Following the pitch experience, students had the opportunity to engage in some real-world networking at the After Business event to practice their skills and establish new relationships as they prepare for graduation this spring.
To learn more about the Digital Media Production program and to apply, visit www.confederationcollege.ca/DMP.
