Students See Their Futures in Bright Lights

Students in high schools across California are going Hollywood—and so are their teachers.

Design/Media/Arts, a new curriculum designed by EDC, is preparing youth for futures in the arts, media, and entertainment industry while meeting the academic standards needed for college. Students take part in activities that apply fine arts techniques to new media production, and they learn science, history, mathematics, and English through engaging media contexts.

For example, students may paint a landscape that they later use as concept art (illustrations used to generate character and story ideas for movies and video games). Or they might create podcasts and videos.

The curriculum is part of an educational movement called multiple pathways. “A career-themed pathway can be an entire school or a school within a school,” explains EDC’s Cindy Orrell. “Students learn through a coordinated approach to academics and technical education. Schools or districts might have multiple pathways, so some students have electives around arts and media and others around engineering or law and justice.”

Teachers being trained to use the curriculum recently had the opportunity to tour DreamWorks Studios and NBC Universal. They talked with industry professionals and saw examples of media in the making, which they will be able to use as inspiration and discussion points with their students.

This project is conducted in collaboration with ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career and funded by The James Irvine Foundation.