Students from Ruston Jr. High school getting a lesson on how to operate The Radio Lab from student workers Elijah Roussell and Ahmya Ash. DARYL RILEY II / Courtesy Photo
The Department of Mass Communication’s Radio Lab hosted a Fall Festival on Fri. Nov. 26 for students in the area. A total of 40 students from Ruston Jr. High School were in attendance for the tour of the different entities of the department.
The students were able to get a glimpse of how the department is run. Students also learned their options for their college career.
“One of the things that we want to accomplish is to make sure we had an outreach to students at the junior high school level especially 7th and 8th grade especially because this is a Journeys to Career’s class,” said Santoria Black, the Radio Lab instructor.
Students toured the TV Center, The Gramblinite, The Radio Lab and Digital Media. During the sessions, students received an in-depth understanding of how all the different media outlets work, different job duties from student workers, the advantages and disadvantages.
The students of the department made it certain that the student visitors knew that it was okay to have different career goals as well. So of course, with a building full of eager teenagers it wasn’t uncommon for several of the students to have career goals of being doctors, lawyers, firefighters among other professions.
Either way, the attendees were encouraged to further their education even if it’s not in the media field.
“We wanted to make sure that we reached out to them to show them what being in this business is all about,” Black said. “We even have a few of the students that have reached out to us already. I think that this was a really great opportunity for the students and us to give back to the community as well.”
In some of the sessions, students got a chance to get a hands-on experience on the air, laying out pages, creating graphics and filming with the TV Center cameras.
“I picked up details on editing software on how to edit photos and video, and what it takes to actually edit those and how much work it takes to put things in papers and how to deal with being on camera,” Ahmad Breaux a seventh grader who attended all the sessions, said.
Students were able to ask questions not solely pertaining to be a mass communication major but the overall life of a college students, how to balance out being active and staying on top of studies, etc.
“It was a wonderful experience, being able to help the kids and teach them how to run the board in the Radio Lab. It was a good turnout,” Wilshawn Jones, a junior mass communication major from Homua, La, said.
After all the sessions were completed, students participated in a mixer with the faculty and students of the department. DJ Helicopter and K. Rashad had the kids on their feet nonstop during a dance off before sending them on their way.