During the summer of 2014 and 2015 I was a Team Advisor (TA) for the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) at the Journalism, Film, & Media Arts program. This conference was an 11-day pre-college experience for invited high school students from around the world. As a TA, my job was to prepare these students for the world of communication.
The conference incorporated several tasks that required me to describe the communication discipline and its central questions to the students. One activity we did, “Communication History: From Yesterday to Tomorrow,” involved students grouping up to research the history of a channel of mediated communication and presenting their findings to their peers. There were also many classes the students could take, ranging from such topics as film production, journalism, professional newswriting, photography, social media, public relations, and even types of computer-based design. These classes were facilitated by college professors who brought in guest speakers from the industry and led them through seven days of intensive coursework. For the students, these classes certainly laid the framework of the broad nature of the communication discipline and the various pathways for students interested in working within the field.
Attached is a schedule from one of the six 11-day sessions I helped to run as a TA. As you will see it is jam-packed to ensure no moment is wasted in preparing these students for a life working in the communication industry. I’ve also attached the link to the program’s website. There you will find sample schedules, informational videos, and other relevant information on the Journalism, Film, & Media Arts program at the National Student Leadership Conference.
NSLC's webpage for Journalism, Film, & Media Arts can be accessed here.
A copy of the schedule from the 2014 session in Berkeley, CA can be accessed below.