Community Outreach

Practicum Spotlight: Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

March 15, 2010 Practicum at CDIA is viewed rather like it's the "crown jewel," and it's one of the things that makes the school unique. It's an opportunity at the end of the program where students are partnered with a non-profit organization that has need of their particular skill set. Practicum is treated by the school, student, and the organization as an actual job, and the work the students produce ends up being used by the client in the real world. It is one of the reasons that CDIA appealed to me when I was choosing a school over a year ago, and it did not disappoint. For the Photography Practicum, we were given a list of possible clients, from which we had to choose three, and write proposals for each. My first choice was the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), and it was the client assigned to me. BCNC wanted two things from their practicum experience: a library of photos to use in various promotional materials in print and on the web, and a multimedia tour of their newly built center. BCNC has a lot of different programs, ranging from children's day care and adult ESL classes to karate and breakdancing. I know...breakdancing. It was a lot for one photographer to cover, even given that I had roughly three weeks of shooting time. Thirty gigabytes of photos and five gigs of audio later, however, I managed to get it all in. In the process I made hundreds of new friends at the center and had a great time doing it. It was very stressful at times, running back and forth between the center's two buildings. I had scheduling problems, communication problems, numerous equipment failures, and several reshoots to cover mistakes I had made. In short, it was just like a real job. In my case, I felt that Practicum was an excellent real-world experience. I learned so much about dealing with clients, subjects, model releases, time management, and shooting in different conditions. My multimedia piece for the center took me the full month to complete (actually I'm still tweaking it) and represented roughly 100 hours of work in both shooting and editing. I also learned that I am not an audio engineer. I'm pretty certain that I could do the same piece in about half that time now, and it would be much better. I now have a better understanding of how important communication is with clients, and with other digital artists like audio and web development engineers. I have a much greater understanding of how to budget and bill for time on similar projects, and what kind of time frames are realistic for different shoots of varying scopes. I also have a satisfied client and a multimedia piece that will benefit them for years to come and one that I can be proud of and use hopefully to get new clients in the near future. I think that this type of experience is truly invaluable, and it's definitely the kind that you just can't get in the classroom! Watch the video HERE