High school students can 'Zoom into Careers' at Southeastern this summer
Contact: Christina Chapple
4/3/09
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HAMMOND – High school students can explore the fields of inventing, movie making, television, finance and investments at Southeastern Louisiana University this summer through “Zoom into Careers,” a new series of career workshops.
“Choosing a career path is one of the most important decisions on the horizon of every high school student,” said Tammy Bourg, Southeastern’s interim provost. “Zoom into Careers taps the expertise of Southeastern faculty and area professionals to provide a hands-on opportunity for young people to explore their options – and have fun doing it. It is another creative way in which Southeastern is contributing to higher education’s crucial role in workforce development.”
Joan Gunter, assistant vice president for extended studies, said “Zoom into Careers” workshops are open to students in grades 9-12 and are being held on the main campus in Hammond and at Southeastern’s St. Tammany Center in Mandeville and the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center in Walker.
To offer the workshops, she said Southeastern is drawing upon expertise of the colleges of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and Business and partnering with the Northshore School of the Arts, Southeastern Channel, and Division of Extended Studies.
“Zoom workshops are hands-on and career specific and will all be conducted by Southeastern faculty and professional instructors,” Gunter said. “Students will work in teams – just as they will in real work environments. Each will have a finished product that they can bring home or share with family and friends via the Internet.”
May 15 is the registration deadline is for “Zoom into Careers” workshops. Late registration is available through May 29 with a $25 late fee. Registration forms are available at www.selu.edu/zoom.
The 2009 Zoom into Careers workshops are:
▪ “Zoom into Inventing” – June 8-16 (no classes June 12-14), 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Anzalone Hall; $350. Michael Beauvais, assistant professor of industrial technology at Southeastern, will teach the fundamentals of sketching, building parts and solid models using the new and powerful modeling software AutoDesk Inventor.
Working in teams, students will develop, document, and produce solid models and drawings of their solution to a design problem and present their solution to a panel of experts, as well as family and friends.
“Each team’s presentation and design solution will be posted online along with samples of individual work,” said Beauvais, who has three decades of experience as a design professional. “They’ll bring home color copies of all activities and a video clip of their animation presentations.”
Beauvais said he will bring in fellow design professionals to interact with the students as they learn about the profession, the patent process and how to work within deadlines and project constraints.
▪ “Zoom into Movie Making,” -- June 15-19, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., St. Tammany Center in Mandeville and Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center in Walker; $295. Offered in partnership with Southeastern’s Northshore School of the Arts, the workshop targets an industry that has grown more than 80 percent in Louisiana since 2005.
Sharon Stewart Sharpe, assistant community news editor for The Times-Picayune, St. Tammany bureau, who has worked in radio-television-film and new media production since 1974, will teach the course at the St. Tammany Center, while it will be offered at the Livingston Center by multimedia engineer Roze Hanks-Walker, who has more than 10 years experience in the motion picture, music video industry.
Working in the centers’ high tech computer labs, Zoom into Movie Making will provide hands-on experience and exposure to the movie and new media industry from pre- to post production. Participants will learn digital editing to create a finished multimedia piece.
“The final day of the workshop, the participants at the two locations will come together for a full ‘red carpet’ experience, including interviews by the Emmy award-winning Southeastern Channel, studio tours and a grand finale showcase of their final productions,” said NSA Director Charlotte Collins.
▪ “Zoom into Finance and Investments” -- Fridays, June 12-Aug. 7, 9 a.m.-noon, Garrett Hall; $75. Tuition for the workshop is subsidized through a grant from State Farm Insurance.
While all eyes are on the ups and downs of the global economy, no topic could be more timely, said Rakesh Duggal, who has taught finance for more than 20 years and, as former head of Southeastern’s Department of Marketing and Finance, established the College of Business’ state-of-the-art finance lab.
Duggal will teach participants the principles of investments through lectures, simulation games, hands-on exercises, and exposure to sophisticated Wall Street financial systems such as Bloomberg and Financial Trading Software (FTS).
The students will also be divided into three-person teams to invest a hypothetical $1 million in a portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, or cash. The team with the best rates of return will win prizes of $500, $300, and $200. They also will be recognized at a special awards ceremony.
▪ “Zoom into Television” -- June 22-26 or July 6-10, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., the Southeastern Channel, Southeastern University Center; $295. Students attracted to careers in front of or behind the camera will get hands-on experience in producing news story packages in the real world setting of the Southeastern Channel, the university’s award-winning cable television channel.
Led by General Manager Rick Settoon, participants will work with the channel’s staff on researching and writing scripts, reporter interviews and standups, shooting story B-Roll and visuals, proper use of camera, lighting, audio equipment, digital editing, logging, voiceover recording, newscast formatting, anchoring, studio and control room operations, and the studio production of a newscast.
“The students will produce a two-minute news story segment that will be rolled into the channel’s news show in live fashion, airing on the Southeastern Channel and our Web site, www.selu.edu/tv,” Settoon said.
Additional information about Zoom into Careers workshops is available at www.selu.edu/zoom, by emailing zoom@selu.edu, or by calling Southeastern Continuing Education, 800-256-2771, 985-549-2301; the St. Tammany Center, 985-893-6251; or the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center, 225-665-3303.
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