The Central Educational Center’s Broadcast Video program has received a $30,000 donation of camera and studio equipment from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
The donation to the Coweta County CEC consisted of studio-equipped cameras and a Sony digital video switcher, valued at approximately $30,000, according to school system spokesman Dean Jackson.
Goizueta Business School Director of Media Services Alan Pogue, a Coweta resident, facilitated the donation to CEC.
“At the business school we emphasize social enterprise, in particular educational partnerships, and we had an opportunity to support this program,” said Pogue. “CEC has a very strong broadcast video program, and this donation will hopefully be very helpful to these students.”
Pogue has worked with Michael Britt, CEC’s Broadcast Video program director, on programming when Britt was a producer at Georgia Public Broadcasting.
“This equipment that they have donated is advanced equipment that is rarely found at a high school,” said Britt. “It opens up opportunities of new levels of experience for our students.”
CEC’s Broadcast Video Production I and II classes teaches students basic camera setup and shooting, script writing, storyboarding, basic editing. The second-tier class expands upon those skill sets and adds advanced editing, advanced camera, and lighting. As a part of their class work, students produce airable material such as music videos, videos about a particular class at CEC, and public service announcements.
“In general, we teach students how to tell a story using the medium of video,” said Britt. Britt’s program also partners with Newnan-based digital media company NuLink, among others, and NuLink houses its local production studios on the charter school’s campus.
Emory’s donation to the program is the latest major boost to CEC’s broadcast video program. In late 2011, Georgia Public Broadcasting donated studio set pieces from its Atlanta production studios to the student videography program, including set walls, windows, doors, and artistic stage pieces that had been used at GPB for various television productions for the past 20 years. CEC was also recently awarded a Georgia Career Academy Project grant of $150,000 to upgrade the school’s video and recording equipment.
“With these opportunities, we’re basically building a small television station here. That will provide significant opportunities for our students,” said Britt.
