Originally published in The New Haven Register December 16, 2011

More than 200 high school students from across Connecticut will travel to Quinnipiac to attend programs on movie making and entrepreneurship on Dec. 19 and 20.

Sessions will run from 8:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at various campus locations each day.

Participants in the Digital Media and Movie Making program on Monday, Dec. 19, will study producing, camera, lighting, editing, marketing and advertising, multimedia production and design for both traditional and emerging broadcast platforms.

Liam O’Brien, professor of communications, will make a presentation about his student film project in South Africa.

“This program is unique nationally for its cutting-edge involvement in digital media arts technology for high school students, in their preparation for higher education work in film, video and interactive digital media production and design and for their future careers in the entertainment and information industries,” O’Brien said.

On Dec. 20, students who attend the E-Commerce Entrepreneurship program will hear lectures on business marketing, business planning, web design and media and break-even analysis. Thomas A. Capone, chairman and CEO of www.MTP-USA.com, one of the country’s fastest growing telecommunications companies, will deliver the keynote address.

These programs are part of Connecticut Career Choices, an initiative set up by the Connecticut Office for Workforce Competitiveness. They engage high school students throughout the state in education that stimulates interest and develops skills in science, technology, engineering and math. Connecticut Career Choices is implemented by the Center for 21st Century Skills at Education Connection who recently received an Investment in Innovation Grant (i3) from the U.S. Department of Education to develop an Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

The Digital Media and Moving Making Program, currently in 12 Connecticut high schools, will become the 10th grade technology course for the academy sequence next September. Ten Connecticut high schools are involved with the E-Commerce Entrepreneurship course this year. E-Commerce Entrepreneurship is set to be the 11th grade technology course for the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Student work will be presented at the CT Innovation Expo with films submitted to the Connecticut Student Film Festival in May.

Quinnipiac has been involved since the inception with the Connecticut Career Choices’ Digital Media and Movie Making Program and is now a partner of the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Published in the Litchfield County Times, January 18, 2011

Several area schools will be participating in a program designed by Education Connection that promotes digital literacy, collaborative problem solving and social responsibility while using the Internet.

“It’s about creating a sequence of courses, a model program in high schools, that engages the student in the stem fields,” said Frank LaBanca, the director of the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for Education Connection, which is based in Litchfield.

The program is being funded through a $4.43 million U.S. Department of Education grant that was obtained by the educational group, which is scheduled to hold an official launch ceremony today (Jan. 14) for the program.

It had initially been scheduled for a day earlier but was postponed due to the questionable road conditions that day after storm Benedict delivered about two feet of snow to the area.

Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Cheshire) had planned to attend the event before it was postponed.

Dr. LaBanca, who formerly was the chairman of the Science Department at Oxford High School, said the instruction would include collaborative problem-solving activities in the stem fields, as well as instruction in digital persona, knowledge of role in the digital society and protection of your personal information that is online.

A news release from Education Connection stated that 16 middle schools and 12 high schools, including Brookfield High School (BHS), would participate in the program.

The news release reported that Education Connection’s application to the federal Education Department was the only one that was approved from Connecticut and was rated as the sixth best application that was submitted.

BHS Principal Bryan Luizzi said the school already is part of a program developed by Education Connection in which ninth-grade students in Earth and Energy are using digital skills.

He said the program would be expanded to a biology class during the next academic year.

“Information literacy is an important 21st-century skill,” Dr. LaBanca said.

“Students need to be able wade through the vast amount of information that is online,” he added.

In addition to Brookfield, other school districts participating in the program are Bethel, Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, North Canaan, Region 1, Sharon, East Haven, Manchester, New Britain, New Haven and Waterbury, as well as North Adams, Mass., according to the news release from Education Connection.

“It is a blended experience for students where they have a course Web shell that is similar to the Blackboard system that is used at some of the colleges,” Dr. Luizzi said regarding the use of online functions.

He said the students work on discussion boards, Wikis and videos.

Dr. Luizzi said that in the science class at BHS students have a comprehensive project in which they focused on an oil spill and they worked in groups to come up with a solution.

Dr. LaBanca said the use of the media has taken teachers from being “sages” and turned them into “facilitators.”

“Students know how to assemble a PowerPoint slide show,” Dr. Luizzi said. “The teachers now have to focus more on the end result of what the project should look like.”

Dr. LaBanca said students have to recognize that Internet postings can have an impact on their college applications and job interviews.

John Battelle, a writer and consultant on digitization, told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in 2005 that a search on Google for a person may provide a skewed profile, since the controversial aspects that that person’s life would probably generate the most activity and be on the first page of the Google search.

Also, he has written in his book, “The Search,” that by recalibrating its system Google can cause an online company to lose a vast amount of its business if it suddenly is less prominent during a Web search.

Mr. Battelle stated that Google and its rivals had rewritten how business was being performed in the United States.

“The social network is part of your digital persona,” Mr. LaBanca said, making reference to the impact of Facebook and other social networking Web sites that have grown in popularity in recent years.

Anthony Ciarleglio, the director of the cooperative education work-study program at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, has asked students at that school if they would want a potential employer to read their Facebook page.

“That is part and parcel of who you are,” Dr. LaBanca said.

“Your employer will see your Facebook page,” Mr. LaBanca said. “It is part of your resume.”

Dr. Luizzi said that students also need to learn more about the responsibility of communicating responsibility through digitization, which has become a larger issue as some bloggers believe they can take on a different persona and in some instances aggressively criticize other people, partly because they can be anonymous.

“There are instances of cyber bullying and taking on a persona that they would not have in the real world,” the BHS principal said.

“Students need to learn that good digital citizenship is not much different than good citizenship in the real world,” Dr. Luizzi said.

The Brookfield Board of Education is currently considering a proposal to add a second library media specialist at BHS to help students become more adept at digital communications.

Originally published on newstimes.com on April 23, 2010

So you think you want to be a doctor, physical therapist, or veterinarian?

The Regional Internship Program, coordinated by Education Connections in Litchfield, offers area high school juniors and seniors a chance to try out a career in health care.

With the cost of college steadily climbing and many health care careers now requiring six or more years of education, checking out the field to see if you’ll actually like it is a plus.

“The purpose of the program is to help students make better, more informed career choices,” said Karen Moore, program coordinator at Education Connections.

Students chosen for the program work three hours a week for nine weeks with a professional in the field.

“We try to match students as closely as possible with the medical field — human or animal — they’re interested in,” Moore said.

Students have been placed in a variety of specialties, including physical therapy, nursing, nutrition, dental, pediatrics, oncology, psychiatry, radiology. They may work in a doctor’s office, therapy center or Danbury, Waterbury or New Milford Hospitals.

“The students get to shadow the professional,” said Moore, “and really see what they do.”

For many students, said Peg Ragaini, school to career counselor at Newtown High School, their idea of what it’s like to work in a hospital is based either on their own experience as a patient or what they see on TV.

Students actually get to help with some tasks and do tangentially related jobs like office work. Nicole Mendelson, a senior at Pomperaug High School in Southbury, has participated in the program for two years. Last year she worked in Danbury Hospital and this year she was paired up with Dr. Rajadevi Satchi of Child Care Associates in Danbury.

“I want to be a nurse practitioner in either pediatrics or family practice,” Mendelson said.

She said the experience she’s gained through the program has been invaluable.

“I’ve seen two live births,” she said, “and the opportunity to interact with patients has helped me see what I’ve learned in the classroom applied to real life.”

Anatomy and physiology make much more sense when you’re applying it to a real body, Mendelson said.

“Most students who participate in the program find it makes their courses in school much more relevant,” said Ragaini. “Working in a professional setting also helps students learn about the responsibilities of a real job,” she said. “Dress code, time sheets, having a professional demeanor are all part of the on-the-job training.”

Before participating in the internship program, Mendelson’s only other job experience was helping out at a concession stand.

“This work is very different from the concession stand,” she said. “You have to have a professional attitude and learn to collaborate with other staff members and patients in a respectful way,” she said.

All students attend a mandatory orientation session led by Jane DeAngelo, staff education specialist at Danbury Hospital.

“The students learn about safety issues, communication, HIPPA Privacy regulations,” she said. “Everything they see on the job, stays on the job,” she emphasizes.

The students are at the perfect point for us to pull them into the field of health care, DeAngelo said. “The doctors, nurses, managers are excited to cultivate this interest in the students.”

Dr. Satchi said she enjoys sharing her knowledge with the students and stimulating their interest in pediatrics.

“I want them to know that it’s a long haul with medicine,” she said. “It’s a commitment and requires sacrifice so it’s good if they see what the career they’re thinking of actually entails.”

In addition to the field experience, interns attend monthly meetings and presentations on various facets of employment in health care, such as diversity and patient communication. There are written assignments and the students receive an evaluation on their performance, Moore said.

“The meetings are great,” said Ragaini “because they bring together kids from other high schools with similar interests.”

Did participating in the program confirm for Mendelson her decision to pursue a career in health care? Absolutely, she said.

“It really inspired me,” she said and she can’t wait to start her college studies in the fall.

For some students, being an intern makes them realize health care is not for them.

“We had one girl,” Moore recalls, “who wanted to be a vet and found out while working in an animal hospital that she’s allergic to dog hair!”

Given the time and money she would have spent pursuing an education in veterinary medicine, Moore said, “we still consider that a success!”