Students prepare for spring break projects
While many of their peers head for sun-and-fun, about 60 Media School students will use spring break for learning experiences in Florida, China and Japan.
The school’s courses with travel components use discussions, readings and backgrounders from the coursework to inform projects that are further explored by traveling to different locales. Once they return, they put to use the information they gathered in their continuing research and coursework.
- Students visiting China in the Media and Culture in China course will meet scholars, practitioners and observers who provide a variety of perspectives on the transformation of the media environment as the Chinese government seeks to balance outside influences with a desire to control information at home. Taught by associate professor Emily Metzgar, the class analyzes China’s media system.
- The students in the Orlando Theme Parks: Masters of Integrated Marketing course, led by senior lecturer Teresa White, will visit Orlando, Florida, to explore different areas of each theme park in the area, conduct interviews with company personnel and use their own experiences to apply and have a greater understanding of the concepts of the course.
- Students in professor of practice Joe Coleman’s Reporting War and Peace in Okinawa will report from Okinawa, Japan, where they will produce feature reports on interviews with Okinawa residents, U.S. officials in Japan, survivors of the Battle of Okinawa and activists.
Two other groups of students will travel as part of school programs instead of classes.
- Those traveling to Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida will participate in a service-learning trip sponsored by The Media School. The students will create promotional videos to help the National Park Service preserve the seashore’s natural resources, as well as other volunteer projects. Career coach Lauren Little and academic advisor Kate Goldstein are leading the trip.
- Sophomore Ernie Pyle Scholars will spend the week in seminars at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a training facility in St. Petersburg that assists professionals with refining their skills and provides intensive training to college students such as the scholars. Poynter instructors have devised a series of workshops specifically for the IU group. Media School associate professor Mike Conway is the faculty advisor for this group of scholars.
IU’s spring break is March 11-19.