The Community
Kamloops is a city with beautiful landscapes and history. For tourists, the Multimedia basics will immerse them into discovering the media spaces that Kamloops has to offer.
The faculty of communication and TRU Start Dual Credit at Thompson Rivers University wants to offer a small tourism opportunity for high school students to get hands-on learning experience. With such a high demand for photography and radio high school students in Kamloops can engage in this marketable and informative tour.
Photo of a Radio Station : Source Unsplash
The Opportunity
The workshop offers technological, practical, and hands-on learning experiences in radio and photography. This local expertise at TRU (Thompson Rivers University) will provide 10 high school students from the Kamloops School of Artsto be the first batch of students to do this tour. The reason for choosing the Kamloops School of the Arts first is because they offers art-driven education. Photography and radio can be viewed as forms of art so we believe the Kamloops School of the Arts will be a perfect fit. In the future we hope to expand this tour to other high schools in Kamloops.
This tour shows how TRU is linked to the community. It encompasses the TRU mission statement. According to tru.ca, the mission statement is “TRU is a comprehensive, learner-centred, sustainable university that serves its regional, national, and international learners and their communities through high quality and flexible education, training, research and scholarship.”
This tour gives the opportunity for high school students to get hands-on learning by participating in photography and radio workshops. It gives students the chance to interact with the members of the Department of Communication and see if they want to pursue majors in photography and radio influences.
In this tour high school students get to work with current TRU students. Steve Marlow will be leading the radio workshop. Marlow is the Program Coordinator at CFBX-FM. He will be teaching the high school students about radio and how to use the equipment.
This opportunity helps relieve stress from high school students because the transition from high school to university can be difficult, so this tour allows students to be more comfortable at the university. Students also get the opportunity to get a tour of the Mic with work-study students Madelene, Carlie, and Carly. High school students get to learn about work-study opportunities and see the equipment the Mic has to offer. This tour also provides a mini photo workshop from Colleen Foucault, an assistant Teaching Professor communication Coordinator, and photographer, who teaches photography courses at TRU.
Together we can help provide hands-on learning to high school students to help students gain more confidence, earn credits, and get a sneak peek into university.
Photo of young people : Source Unsplash
The Experience
The experience of this tour will include hands-on learning experiences from radio station 92. fm with Steve Marlow, a tour of the mic with the work studies, and a photo workshop with Colleen Foucault.
So, this tour will take place once in the fall semester and once in the winter semester. This tour will also be provided in May and June. The time and date will be on a Friday from 9 am-1:30 pm.
10 high school students from Kamloops School of the Arts will be dropped off from the school bus to 92.5 FM radio at 9:00 am.
Workshop at the radio station: 5 students will be downstairs exploring the large CD collection that 92. 5FM offers jazz, blues, R&B, country, folk, rock, world beats etc. Students will learn how to find music on the computer logs. The other 5 students will be upstairs with Steve Marlow, program coordinator at CFBX-FM learning how to use the equipment. Students will get the chance to read out some announcements and play some music over the air as part of the workshop. Then it will rotate so everyone gets a chance to do both.
“Most people do not get a chance to see a radio station, and people are used to a commercial radio, people are not used to seeing things happening live, said “Marlow.
Experiences and skills people will gain according to Steve:
- At 92.5FM you can see live shows
- Benefits to volunteering add experiences to your resume
- Responsibilities for students can get credits to TRU/ TRU world, internship
- Gain more confidence
- Work experience
“The youngest host they had was 10 years old,” said Marlow.
At about 10:30 am students will walk to the MIC at Old Main and get a tour. Students get to see the different equipment TRU has to offer like several types of cameras, z50, Nikon d7000, z6, z7, tripods, mics etc. There will be a meet and greet with the work studies and how to get involved with the work-study program.
Students will have cameras provided by the MIC and then head over to computer lab 2712 where a mini photo workshop will take place. Colleen will help lead this workshop, and members of the photography club will be there to help with the workshop. We will have a pollard’s camera so students can take the photos with them as souvenirs.
Then at noon students will head to the TRU Conference Centre and have lunch. Catering is from the Stock Pot Cafe.
Faculty from the communication department are welcome to meet and greet with the high school students. Current BCDJstudents are welcome to have lunch and network. Then around 1:30 pm high school students will head to the front of the TRUSU building, for their school bus to take them back to the Kamloops School of the Arts.
Map
Partners for this tour
- Current BCDJ students
- Photo club
- Journalism and Communication Club
- Faculty of the Communication
- Future students’ ambassadors
- Art ambassadors
- Radio volunteers
- Staff from the radio station and volunteers
- Work studies from the mic
- TRU Start Dual Credit
- Thompson Rivers University
People holding hands : Source Unsplash
The Benefit
The benefits of this tour:
Exposure: Students will be exposed to real-world applications of media studies and hands-on learning.
Community engagement: Interacting with professionals and university faculty can motivate students and increase their engagement with educational content.
Skill Development: Workshops provide practical skills and experiences for both personal and academic growth.
Career Insights: The tour can help students understand the potential career paths in the media
Earn credits: The tour will help students earn university and high school credits.
Smoother transition from high school to university: This tour will help with that transition from high school to university to not make university so frightening as it is sometimes for high school students.
Sustainable community and social capital: This tour will help build a strong relationship in the community for high school and university students: It will help build a sense of building, safety, diversity, and networking.
(FEATURE IMAGE ) Woman taking a photo : Source Unsplash