LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KTSM) – The New Mexico State University is training future journalists, filmmakers, creative writers and animators.
Journalisim and Media Studies, Digital Filmaking, Animation and Digital Affects and Creative Writing all under one roof at NMSU.
“I think that over time, the faculty realized that there was a lot of really great synergy in working together, and they found that by thinking about new ways to offer our classes as more of a cross-disciplinary approach, it created new opportunities for our students to learn things that might really sort of exist more in the intersections,” said Amy Lanasa, the department head of the Creative Media Institute and head of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies.
Students are getting hands on experience and at times jobs before their diploma.
“It prepares students really well to go into broadcasting because they’ve done it by the time they get out of here,” said Nick Miller, News 22 director and college associate professor.
The student-run broadcast goes on the air three times a week, training students in English and Spanish with News 22, and Noticias 22.
“NMSU journalism and media studies offering a Spanish language component, super important because there’s so much of a Spanish speaking community throughout the U.S. and we need journalists, photographers, digital editors, producers who are bilingual and can reach out to the community,” said Hugo Perez the news director for Noticias 22, assistant news director for News 22 and a college associate professor.
In the Creative Media Institute, students create feature films.
“I don’t know another film school in the country that’s making a feature film or a professional feature film with a largely student production crew, so that’s really unique,” said Ross Marks an NMSU professor in the Creative Media Institute.
Students talk about the growing New Mexico film industries and the opportunities available to them.
“We don’t have to graduate from New Mexico and uproot our lives and move to California or Georgia or something to start working on films. Here you can stay in your backyard and start doing the things you love to do,” said Blake Bundy a Digital Film Making major with a minor in Animation and Digital Affects.
From feature films to client based filmmaking classes.
“They put a lot of trust into us when we are checking out equipment and we are working as producers, directors, scheduling times with the clients and we also have our own camera teams,” said Ezekiel Solis a Digital Film Making major.
Students working in front of and behind the camera, double majoring in the Creative Media Institute and Journalism Department, with big dreams in mind.
“The opportunities that are open to me being a double major are so expansive. I’ve been able to do so many different things from being able to work with ESPN to being able to work on short feature films in town and outside of town. It’s been really a great opportunity for me as a double major,” said Cristian Crosse who is majoring in Journalism and Media Studies with a minor in Digital Filmmaking.
The head of the Journalism and Creative Media departments saying NMSU students get hired.
“I’m quite often begging our students to show up to commencement because they’ve already left to go pursue their jobs because they’ve gotten an offer at the start of May 1. We’re really proud of that, I think that these are areas that employers really need,” said Lanasa.
Lanasa looking to the future with the goal of creating a Creative Media Journalism and Media Studies School at NMSU, bringing all the departments together.
“This institution is not one that usually has schools, so were still exploring what does that mean and what does that look like but it’s exciting,” said Lanasa.
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