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Students in New Bedford High School’s Academy of Information Technology gained firsthand experience in media production at the Connecting for Change conference in October and the TEDxNewBedford summit earlier this month, through a partnership with Big Ocean, a city-based multimedia production agency.
The students – Seniors Savon Baptista, Owen Fraga, Vanessa Pimental, and Drew Fraga and Junior Elioson Jasem -worked at the Marion Institute-sponsored Connecting for Change conference and the TEDxNewBedford summit, broadcasting the conference, where they were compensated for their work. It is the second year Academy of IT students from NBHS worked Connecting for Change, which focuses on sustainability of the planet’s natural resources.
“It’s very important that our students helped to share the work on a global level,” said Bob Perrotti, Academy of IT teacher and advisor. “Our seniors enrolled in the Academy of IT worked all weekend by setting up camera equipment, and then filmed, directed and broadcast the event.”
“This is a great opportunity for our NBHS students to gain real-life work experience in the fields they’ve selected for their academy majors,” said Headmaster Bernadette Coelho. “With events like the ones our Academy of IT students worked on, it’s also a chance to be part of a larger community project that gets them involved in what is happening both locally and globally.”
Organizers who worked with NBHS students lauded their involvement in the projects.
“We’ve worked with the students on a number of events over the past few years, and I’m always impressed with their technical knowledge and enthusiasm,” said Kevin Kertscher, senior producer at Big Ocean. “They know how to set up the gear and work together on the filming, and then we try to teach them a few extra things about how to meet professional standards. I think they like to get big expectations put on their shoulders, and they also seemed to enjoy hearing all of the interesting talks from a variety of great speakers. We appreciate the chance to be involved with the students, and I think it is a great learning experience for them.”
“TEDxNewBedford was about bringing the community to have a conversation of what it looks like to go uNBound, beyond what we thought was possible,” said Dolores Hirschmann, organizer of TEDxNewBedford. “Having a group of New Bedford High School students be part of our team for the event, was another way to include the community. They worked along Kevin Kertscher, from Big Ocean Studios, in the filming of our 17 speakers throughout our seven hour event. It was a long day but they did an amazing job. It was a pleasure working with them.”
The Academy of Information Technology is one of four National Academy Foundation-based academies at New Bedford High School; the others are the Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Finance, and the Academy of Health Sciences, as well as New Bedford High School’s independently designed Academy of Arts & Humanities.
