This year students from the Grambling State University Yearbook and TV Center were selected to work at the 40th annual Bayou Classic.
In previous years, both organizations would receive requests from the hired management firm for the Classic, New Orleans Convention Company Inc. to use their work.
This year the Yearbook was invited to be a part of the staff instead, said Glenn Lewis
”Some of the Bayou Classic representatives last year asked us if we could get a few student photographers for the upcoming game,” said Lewis, GSU’s coordinator of photography and Yearbook. “It worked out great; the students got a lot of experience out of it.”
Dottie Belletto, CEO/president of NOCCI, said she saw the mass communication programs that Grambling State offers for students when she came to the campus.
”It was very impressive, they were so professional,” said Belletto. “GSU has an incredible videography and photography program with leadership.”
Belletto told The Gramblinite that students from Southern University were also selected to work during Bayou Classic, but it was only GSU students filming and taking pictures. In the future, she plans to incorporate both schools every year to work at the Classic to help open up job opportunities.
”There are some extraordinary talent that are on both these campuses, Southern and Grambling, and we need to give them the opportunities that they both deserve.”
Lewis said one student who was selected was Tyrie Goodman, Yearbook’s editor, from Houston. Goodman said he was honored that Belletto contracted GSU students and utilized their craft in a professional atmosphere.
”The professional experience was great!” said Goodman. “We put in a lot of work. It was also a glorious experience to see my fellow peers of the TV Center working alongside us, and it just confirmed that hard work will be rewarded in the end.”
Ashley Johnson said she was selected by Alan Blakeney.
”It was an experience that I won’t forget,” said Johnson, “and to see that there were only Grambling students doing the work, I felt that spoke volumes for our Mass Communication Department.”