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A PROPOSAL TO CREATE A MEDIA INDUSTRY READINESS PROGRAM

Figure 1: Photo from Bureau of Labor Statistics

Partnering the Nicholson School of Communication with Bright House Networks News 13

Prepared by: Coralie Bertrand

June 19, 2014

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Table of Contents

Project Summary………………………………………………….Page 3

Project Description:

-Introduction………………………………………………….Page 4

-Rationale and Significance…………………………………..Page 6

-Plan of Work:

Scope…………………………………………………...Page 7

Methods………………………………………………....Page 7

Task Breakdown………………………………………...Page 9

Problem Analysis………………………………………..Page 10

-Facilities and Equipment……………………………………..Page 11

Personnel…………………………………………………………Page 11

Budget……………………………………………………………Page 11

Conclusion……………………………………………………….Page 12

Appendices………………………………………………………Page 13

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Project Summary

Developing new courses of study will allow our institution to encourage “student engagement in educationally purposeful activities,” which have demonstrated their effectiveness at enhancing “students’ self-reported gains” (Hu and Kuh). We could create a program that would be implemented starting the Fall term of the 2016 academic year and would consist of nineteen week long workshops during the Fall semester, in which students would gather hands on experience for the television industry.

Experiential learning, or situated learning aims to increase the value of a college degree by preparing students for the workforce, by teaching them key skills sought after by employers. This style of teaching allows students to apply the course “material to their experiences and bring their experiences to the classroom discussion” in order for the professor to help them make connections between the two (Brubaker).

This media industry readiness program is modeled after the media workshops offered at the University of Texas at Austin, which are designed for adult learners and mature teenagers (University of Texas at Austin). Our program will be offered to 18 undergraduate students of Human Communication, Radio-Television and Journalism from the Nicholson School of Communication, who will be selected on a merit-basis. The program will focus on broadcast journalism, production and camera operating. This program will aid in accomplishing the university’s mission to “promote the advancement and the application of human knowledge” (UCF Academic Affairs).

I am proposing that the Nicholson School of Communication partners with Bright House Networks News 13 to immerse students in the television media industry. The program will be divided in two portions: an in-class theoretical learning experience and an internship experience that will last throughout the 16 weeks. In order to implement this program in a cost-friendly manner, we could eliminate one section of a Radio-Television course open to the general public, and assign the available timeslot to the media industry readiness program.

Ms. Katie Mitchell, who teaches Radio-Television courses, is willing to teach the in-class portion of the program and facilitate communication between the Nicholson School of Communication and Bright House Networks News 13. Also, Dr. John N. Simpson, an associate professor, who also teaches Radio-Television courses, is willing to supervise interns in their participating in news coverage with Bright House News 13. Ms. Jennifer Kims, Director of Talent Acquisition at Bright House Networks News 13 has agreed to coordinate the tasks of interns, provided that this program is implemented (See Appendix A, page 14).

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The university would not have to allocate additional funds to the salaries of Ms. Mitchell and Dr. Simpson, considering that they are both already assigned to teach courses in the Fall term of the 2016 academic year. However, I would suggest that the University of Central Florida make a $25,000 donation to Bright House Networks as an incentive to mentor our interns for the Fall term of the 2016 academic year.

The University is equipped with the structures to successfully implement this program, and it can be guaranteed that the program will be gladly received by the student body, as it is designed to fit their needs and enhance the value of their degree. Based on the trends from the 2013-2014 academic catalog and those from the 2014-2015 academic catalg, I can predict that the Nicholson School of Communication will offer courses on television production, broadcast journalism and camera operation during the Fall term of the 2016-2017 academic year (UCF Academic Catalog 2014-2015).

Project Description

I NTRODUCTION

This proposal seeks to create a media industry readiness program through the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida to more effectively provide students with the ability to face the demands of an evolving job market. The aim is to give students an opportunity to enhance the value of their degree in order to increase their level of marketability in the eyes of employers. This program would allow the University of Central Florida to address the issue of lack of hands-on experience among college graduates, by giving current college students the opportunity to maximize their undergraduate experience.

According to a study conducted by Jeffrey A. Cantor, it is imperative for students to gain hands-on experience in their field of study before they graduate. He writes that experiential learning allows institutions to “[optimize] the chances of their students to more easily enter their chosen professions or meet their desired goals upon graduation” (Cantor).

The reason why we would have those programs available to only a select group of current undergraduate students as part of their curriculum, is to reward them for the diligence they have demonstrated in their academic work by using our connections as an established institution to

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provide them with an opportunities to gain technical knowledge about their field through our partnership with an established media company.

Furthermore, this proposal seeks to partner the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication with Bright House Networks News 13. We believe that this liaison will be a beneficial one, due to the fact that while Bright House Networks News 13 will provide us with the means to immerse our students in the television media industry for education purposes, Bright House Networks News 13 will also benefit from the participation of our students in their news coverage, due to the fact that our students will be performing smaller tasks for the company at no cost.

The implementation of a media industry readiness program at the Nicholson School of Communication is designed to respond to the lack of hands-on experience among recent college graduates, that is the cause of their unemployment or underemployment. As a university, it is our role to adapt our teaching methods in order to prepare students to effectively face the demands of the workforce.

Figure 2: Photo by San Diego Workforce Partnership

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RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE

Recent graduates are feeling cheated, as they realize that the college degree that they were taught to regard as their ticket into the professions of their choice, is losing its value on the job market. According to CNN’s analysis of a set of data published by Reuters, an international news agency, today, “unemployment nationwide sits at 7.6%, and underemployment remains widespread, affecting nearly 40 percent of recent college graduates (CNN). College students invest financially and emotionally in their education, in the hopes that universities train them for success; however, the lack of job prospects are causing them to lose faith in university education. Job prospects for graduates with liberal-arts degrees are at an all-time low. According to Payscale, a salary information and economic analysis company, the reason behind this problem is the fact that students pursuing liberal arts degrees are “not trained to do a specific job” (Huffington Post).

The reality is that more and more college students are unemployed or underemployed; having a degree is no longer as valuable as it used to be. Analyses of data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that “only 62 percent of ‘Millenials’ agree that their college experience has ‘paid off’ compared to 84% of the ‘Generation Xers’ and 89 percent of the ‘Boomers’ (Forbes).

Employers are dissatisfied with the lack of experience of college graduates entering the job market. A study entitled The Value of a College Degree, conducted by national labor economist Stephen Rose from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, states that the primary aim of colleges, today, is to devise courses that provide students with opportunities for “apprenticeship in task completion, analytical thinking, and learning to work with others” (Rose). However, the unemployment and underemployment rates among recent graduates demonstrate that the methods of colleges may not respond to the needs of students as well as they should. Young professionals feel cheated when they realize that their degree alone, cannot guarantee them a career in their field. According to Forbes, employers look for college candidates that demonstrate “[prior] technical knowledge related to the job” (Rose).

I believe that it is the role of colleges to create more specialized higher education programs, keeping in mind what employers search for in candidates. The goal of these programs would be to reverse the lack of applied skills in college graduates in the field of Communication and Media. Experiential learning increases the value of education because rather than reiterating theories without a purpose that is visible to students, they engage with course material with “spontaneity, feeling, and deep individual insights with the possibility of rational thought and

Figure 3: Photo by Odesk.com

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reflection” (Miettinen). This initiative would help increase the value of their UCF Degree by equipping graduates with the kind of hands on experience that will enhance their marketability.

I will use journal articles and excerpts of blogs written by economists and university faculty to gather data about how to reverse the increasing unemployment rates among college graduates by redesigning courses in order to prepare current college students for an evolving job market.

It is our role as a university to restore the faith of college students in the system by demonstrating our understanding of the problem at hand and our willingness to adjust our methods to address the problem in the hope of reversing its effects.

PLAN OF WORK

SCOPE

This project will describe the steps to follow to effectively implement a media industry readiness program at the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication. It will develop a strategy to design the program to address the information gap that is causing unemployment and underemployment among recent college graduates. The project will also discuss the conditions of our partnership with Bright House Networks News 13 to create an environment favorable to experiential learning for our students.

METHODSIn order to implement this program, the primary instructor of the course must design a teaching plan keeping in mind our primary goal: instilling theoretical information in students they engage in hands-on experience, and bringing perspective from hands-on experiences to in-class discussions in order for students to bridge the gap between the theoretical and applied aspects of working with media. “Learning and growth are seen to be facilitated best by integrated process that begins with here-and-now experience followed by a collection of data and observations about that experience” (Kolb).

Upon the approval of this proposal, we will schedule a meeting at the Nicholson School of Communication for Ms. Katie Mitchell, primary instructor and the communication facilitator between the University of Central Florida and Bright House Networks, John N. Simpson, supervisor of interns, Ms. Jennifer Kims, director of talent acquisition at Bright House Networks and Dr. Robert C. Chandler, director of the Nicholson School of Communication. The purpose of this meeting will be to decide on the conditions of our contract of partnership.

Three follow-up meetings will be scheduled upon deciding on the conditions of partnership. The first meeting will be held with Dr. Robert C. Chandler and Ms. Jennifer Kims, where they will sign the contract of partnership. The second one will be with Dr. Robert C. Chandler, Ms. Katie Mitchell and Dr. John N. Simpson to determine the eligibility criteria for students. And the third

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one will be held with Dr. Robert C. Chandler, Ms. Katie Mitchell, Dr. John N. Simpson and Ms. Jennifer Kims to decide on effective tactics to market the program to our students.

To determine the demand for this sort of program, we have prepared letters to be mailed to eligible students starting the Fall term of the 2014-2015 academic year, inviting them to schedule a meeting with an advisor to discuss whether they would like to apply for the program. Determining the application deadline will involve interaction with the university Academic Affairs.

Up to three weeks upon receiving student applications, Ms. Katie Mitchell and Dr. John N. Simpson will have evaluated the applications and selected 18 students to take part in the program. Afterwards, they will meet to create a schedule for a mandatory orientation that students will attend before beginning the program. In the orientation, they will learn the objectives of the program and they will have a chance to meet with key faculty (See Appendix B, page 16) . The date, time and location of the orientation are to be determined. The location where the program will be held is also to be determined, in collaboration with Dr. Robert C. Chandler. Ms. Katie Mitchell will be teaching the in-class portion of the program, upon the beginning of the Fall semester, and she will also facilitate communication between the Nicholson School of Communication and Bright House Networks. Dr. John N. Simpson will supervise the work of interns in their news coverage with at Bright House Networks News 13, to ensure that the tasks that interns are assigned are consistent with the curriculum. Ms. Jennifer Kims will coordinate the tasks of interns and will act as the primary contact for the University of Central Florida at Bright House Networks News 13.

Ms. Katie Mitchell, Dr. John N. Simpson and Ms. Jennifer Kims will meet every two weeks throughout the Fall semester to compare notes on the progress of student interns. Ms. Katie Mitchell, Dr. John N. Simpson, Ms. Jennifer Kims will meet with each other and devise a cumulative report about the program that they will present to Dr. Robert C. Chandler every 6 weeks. The success of the program will be measured by how well student interns are able to apply what they use in the classroom to their responsibilities at Bright House News 13. At the end of the semester, Ms. Katie Mitchell, Dr. John N. Simpson, Ms. Jennifer Kims and Dr. Robert C. Chandler will meet to decide whether the program will be offered in the Fall term of the 2017-2018 academic year based on their evaluation of its original success.

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TASK BREAKDOWN

TASK EXPECTED TIME FOR COMPLETION

Design teaching plan 1-2 weeks

Decide on conditions of partnership 1 week

Sign contract of partnership 1 semester

Follow up meetings:a) Determine student eligibilityb) Decide on marketing strategy

2 months:a) 2 weeksb) 1 week

Reach out to students 3 weeks

Determine application deadline 2 weeks

Application evaluation 3 weeks

Select program participants 3 weeks

Create a schedule for orientation 1 week

Determine date, time and location for orientation

3 weeks

Determine location for program 2 weeks

Teach in-class portion of program 1 semester

Facilitate communication between NSC and BHN

1 semester

Supervise work of student interns 1 semester

Coordinate tasks of interns 1 semester

Comparing notes 1 semester

Devise and present cumulative report 1 semester

Decide on future of the program 2 weeks

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PROBLEM ANALYSIS

Potential issues may arise in the process of implementation regarding students’ lack of motivation for taking part in the theoretical aspect of the program. Possible solutions are as follows:

- Requiring that students keep journals to record their experiences with hands-on news coverage and respond to “academic questions”, which are posed in the classroom, in order for them to engage with their experiences in purposeful ways (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Raskoff).

- Create assignments in which students are required to interview a news media professional. The objective of the assignment would be for students to realize the extent to which theoretical knowledge impacts one’s ability to perform professional tasks effectively.

- Stimulate awareness in students by encouraging “critical thought and dialogue” in the classroom (Sternberg and Zhang).

- Encourage students to challenge theoretical information based on their own experiences working in news media.

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FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

The implementation of this program will necessitate few facilities and equipment. Follow up meetings, student orientation, and the in-class section of the program will be held in the Nicholson School of Communication at the Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida. Specific venues within the Nicholson School of Communication are to be determined. No materials are needed to implement the in-class portion of this program.

The secondary location which will be used for the implementation of the hands-on portion of the program is the Bright House News 13 broadcast studio. Bright House News 13 will provide students with the materials necessary for their participation in the broadcast process. These materials will be distributed by Ms. Jennifer Kims to students. Students are not to appropriate these materials to personal use, as these materials are the property of Bright House News 13.

Personnel

Primary Instructor …………………………………………………………. Ms. Katie Mitchell

Internship Supervisor……………………………………………………… Dr. John N. Simpson

Bright House Networks News 13 Contact………………………………… Ms. Jennifer Kims

Budget

The implementation of this program will not necessitate that the university allocates additional funds for the compensation of primary instructor, Ms. Katie Mitchell and internship supervisor Dr. John N. Simpson, considering that they are both already employed by the University of Central Florida and are scheduled to teach courses during the Fall term of the 2016-2017

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academic year. The only funds to be allocated to the implementation of this program, is a $25,000 donation to Bright House News 13 as an incentive to mentor our students.

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Conclusion

This program is designed to enhance the value of a college degree by adding an experiential learning component into education for the news media industry. The recent unemployment and underemployment rates among recent college graduates are caused by employers’ dissatisfaction with graduates’ skill set. The value of a liberal arts degree is rapidly decreasing, considering that employers are complaining about the fact that these degree programs do not prepare students for accomplish specific tasks. The demands of the workforce are changing and it is the role of universities to adapt their teaching methods to provide students with the kind of skill set that employers seek.

Implementing this program will truly benefit Radio-Television majors from the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication by creating an environment where they can test the skills they learn in the classroom in ways that will appeal to future employers.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Resume of Jennifer Kims ………………………14

Appendix B: Topics to cover during student orientation……………………………...16

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APPENDIX A: RESUME OF JENNIFER KIMS

I gathered the information for Jennifer Kims’s resume and experience summary from her LinkedIn profile

Jennifer Kims

Telephone: 727-329-2575   E-mail: mailto:careers@mybrighthouse.com

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education:

MBA, Business Administration and Management, May

Penn State University – Great Valley Graduate Center

Awards and Achievements:

• Received an EMA award for Employment Branding Campaign at ARAMARK for Internal Communication• Awarded Emerging Professional in 2003 from the Pennsylvania State University Hotel and Restaurant Society• Responsible for starting a new company initiative that addresses cost containment in the area of hourly staffing that has returned over $1 million to the business units in three years and contained $7 million annually within the corporation.• Raised compliance from 43% to 93% to manage and maximize Corporate Tax Credit programs that reduce Federal and State Taxes by over $5 million annually. • Project Leader on Corporate Employment Brand Initiative

Work Experience:

Director of Talent Acquisition and Diversity, April 2012 - PresentBright House Networks – St. Petersburg, FL and Orlando, FL Branches serves as the company’s talent and diversity strategist and is responsible for leading the talent acquisition, diversity and onboarding functions for the organization. provides vision, direction and strategy for the company’s sourcing, workforce planning, employment branding, candidate experience and talent operations.

Director of Talent Acquisition Field Operations, June 2009 - April 2012Comcast

Partner, May 2007- July 2009

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Career Movement

Director of Staffing, April 2006 – May 2007Limited Brands

Director of Staffing, August 2003 – April 2006ARAMARK

Director of Government Initiatives, 2001-2003ARAMARK

Regional Staffing Center Manager, 2000-2001ARAMARK

Food Service Director, 1995 – 2000ARAMARK

Skills and Expertise:

Employer Branding College Recruiting Executive Search Talent Acquisition Technical Recruiting Workforce Planning

References:

Available Upon Request

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APPENDIX B: TOPICS TO COVER DURING STUDENT ORIENTATION

The objectives of this orientation are: to familiarize program participants with the methods of experiential learning and to help them understand why it is important for them to gather experience in their field of study before they graduate.

Ms. Katie Mitchell and Dr. John N. Simpson will discuss the following topics:

Mission statement of the media industry readiness program Changing demands on the job market College graduate market value Benefits of experiential learning

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References

“260,000 Graduates in Minimum Wage Jobs.” Emily Jane Fox. CNN Money, 31 March 2014. Web. 17June 2014.http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/31/news/economy/minimum-wage-collegegraduates/index.html

“College Degrees Aren’t Becoming More Valuable – Their Glut Confines People Without Them To aShrinking, Low-Pay Sector of the Market.” George Leef. Forbes, 21 April 2014. Web. 17 June2014.http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2014/04/21/college-degrees-arent becomingmore-valuable-their-glut-confines-people-without-them-to-a-shrinking-low paysector-of-the-market/

“The 10 Skills Employees Want Most in 20-Something Employees.” Susan Adams. Forbes, 11 October2013. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/10/11/the-10-skills-employers-most-want-in-20-something-employees/

“Underemployment Widespread Among College Graduates, Worst For Business Majors.” JillianBerman. The Huffington Post, 18 June 2013. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/underemployment-payscale_n_3459887.html

Brubaker, Jennifer. “Undergraduate Political Communication in Action: Volunteer Experiences in aSituted Learning Course.” Innovations in Education and Teaching International. Vol 48. 3 March2011. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14703297.2010.543775#.U6Hr_bEVdag

Cantor, Jeffrey A. “Experiential Learning in Higher Education: Liking Classroom and Community”.1997. Eric Clearinghouse on Higher Education. Web. 17 June 2014.http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED404948.pdf

Careers at Bright House Networks. 2013. Web. 17 June 2014.http://jobs.brighthouse.com/

Dewey, John. Experience and Education. Simon and Schuster, 2011. Web. 17 June 2014.http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JhjPK4FKpCcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA14&dq=experience+is+more+important+than+a+degree&ots=D9sE-nLEId&sig=sfHerv9etc6jioMVpGd- P_f1Hgg#v=onepage&q=experience%20is

%20more%20important%20than%20a%20deg ree&f=false

Jennifer Kims’s LinkedIn Profilehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/jKims

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Kolb, D.A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. PrenticeHall, 1984. Web. 17 June 2014.http://academic.regis.edu/ed205/Kolb.pdf

Miettinen, Reijo. “The Concept of Experiencial Learning and John Dewey’s Theory onReflective Thought and Action”. International Journal of Lifelong Education. 11November 2010. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/026013700293458

Pierrette Hondgneu-Sotelo and Sally Raskoff. “Community Service-Learning: Promises andProblems”. Vol 22. July 1994. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.jstor.org/stable/1319139?seq=3

Radio-Television Program at the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of CentralFlorida.2014. Web. 17 June 2014 http://communication.cos.ucf.edu/program/radio-television/#program-faculty

Robert J. Sternberg and Li-Fan Zhang. Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles. Routledge, April 2014. Web. 17 June 2014.http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rBuQAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA227&dq=problems+with+experiential+learning&ots=RwSMFdtoBs&sig=szvTTNa1_wbND1GJwat-MmHXD6w#v=onepage&q=problems%20with%20experiential

%20learning&f=false

Rose, Stephen. “The Value of a College Degree”. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. Vol 5. 20 November 2013. Web. 17 June 2014.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00091383.2013.842101#.U6Ht-7EVdag

Shouping Hou and George D. Kuh. “Maximizing What Studnets Get out of College: Testing a LearningProductivity Model”. Journal of College Student Development. Vol 44. March/April 2013. Web.17 June 2014.http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_college_student_development/v044/44.2hu.html

UCF Academic Affairs, Office of the Provost. 2014. Web. 17 June 2014. https://provost.ucf.edu/academic-affairs/

University of Central Florida Course Catalog for 2014-2015 Academic Year. Web. 17 June 2014.http://catalog.ucf.edu/Content/Documents/UCF_Courses_and_Descriptions.pdf

Pictures Credits

Figure 1: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/reporters-correspondents-and-broadcast-news-analysts.htm

Figure 2: http://workforce.org/news/unemployment-rate-rises-73-graduates-joining-workforce

Figure 3: https://www.odesk.com/blog/2010/08/5-steps-to-hire-right-the-first-time/