May
15
Written by:
education
5/15/2009 4:38 PM
Boston University’s CDIA DC, campus launched its first of a series of curriculum meetings with 15 executive and director-level creative professionals from a variety of industries. This meeting of the minds was the campus’ first formal initiative to solicit advice from the area’s top agencies and nonprofits in a private forum with CDIA Executive Director Bob Daniels and other department directors. This extraordinary summit is part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the school’s credibility and value as one of the top higher education institutions of digital arts in the country. Jim Webb, Associate Director of Web Design & Development said, “It's thrilling to see so many senior creative minds around the table, experts in the field, thinking hard about how to train the next generation of graphic and web designers.”
(Shown in the picture above are Boston University's Center for Digital Imaging Arts Washington campus advisory board Bob Daniels, executive director; Alex Whitehead, director of education; and Beth Rakouskas, director of graphic & web design.)
The two-hour meeting revealed valuable information as it relates to current industry and hiring trends. Richard Coad, Executive Creative Director at MDB Communications and this year’s CDIA commencement speaker, described the curriculum as “ambitious” and “a big step ahead of most universities’ programs” and provided additional feedback to enhance the program for 2010. Marc Dionne, Creative Director at Fleishman-Hillard and Erin Myers, Human Resources Director at Threespot, both offered insight into the expectations of hiring managers and how many graduates who may have the technical expertise lack the ability to apply it outside of academia; an area of particular interest to ensure CDIA graduates have a professional edge. Greg Appler, VP of Interactive Services at Grafik adds, “It’s about how they think and how creative manifests to solve a business problem.” Marc Dionne will be hiring CDIA student David DeSandro to join his team for a paid internship.
Michelle Hoffman, Director of Online Initiatives at American Association for Justice, added that in her department, she needs people who have the ability to juggle projects and wear a variety of hats and who also have the capacity to understand the array of industry technologies and skills to problem solve with the resources available. Michelle, who hired CDIA student, Rachel McFadden back in February, raised the point that Rachel is more the exception rather than the rule for most students graduating from higher education. Seth Novick, Director of Career Services, adds, “school is what you make of it and it is not just about showing up for class everyday but rather taking advantage of all the resources available to you while you still can and challenging yourself further outside of class.” All Advisory Board members offered a multitude of suggestions to bridge the gap between academia and the professional world and how CDIA might incorporate these ideas into it’s curriculum to continue to bring value and relevance to an already sophisticated program.
Alex Whitehead, Director of Education says, “What sets CDIA apart from other educational institutions is our ability to constantly reevaluate our curriculum and change it to make it better and stronger. The advisory board is an exceptional way for us to take advantage of our flexibility and ensure that what we are teaching our students is relevant to real word needs. We all had our own thoughts going into this meeting about how to make the program better; it was exciting and affirming for us to hear that our thoughts were already in line with what the industry is calling for.” Beth Rakouskas, Director of Graphic & Web Design adds, “The strength of the program at CDIA is that they can adapt quickly to the needs of the industry. The school is laser-focused on preparing students to do what they love, and more importantly, to get paid for it.” An abbreviated version of the current curriculum can be seen at www.cdiabu.com/graphics/programs.php.
Acknowledgements
CDIA wishes to thank the following Advisory Board members for their suggestions and insight:
Trudi Benford, VP, Creative Services Director, GMMB (www.gmmb.com)
Richard Coad, Executive Creative Director, MDB Communications (www.mdbcomm.com)
Laura Hahn, CDIA Alum & Designer, Home Front Communications
Michelle Hoffman, Director of Online Initiatives, American Association for Justice (www.justice.org)
Todd Metrokin, Freelance Designer/Creative Director
Jon Reiling, Director of Creative Development, AKQA (www.akqa.com)
CDIA, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (http://www.cdiabu.com), offers intensive, hands-on training in Graphic & Web Design, Digital Filmmaking, Photography, 3D Animation and Web Development. Full- and part-time certificate programs are available at state-of-the-art campuses in Waltham, MA and Washington, DC. Financial assistance and career services are available.
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