Durham College, in partnership with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), is pleased to announce that School of Media, Art & Design (MAD) students Chris Gauvreau and Manjula Selvarajah, along with journalism Professor Danielle Harder, have been selected to travel to Jamaica and Antigua this January with another trip to follow in February to Guyana and Barbados to produce videos documenting the CARICOM Education for Employment (C-EFE) program, part of ACCC’s overall Education for Employment (EFE) initiative. C-EFE is a seven-year initiative funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), formerly known as CIDA.

Gauvreau, Selvarajah and Harder will produce the videos as part of the C-EFE’s marketing strategy and materials. The team will be filming and interviewing individuals working on several EFE projects currently underway in the Caribbean with a particular focus on how to engage industry in education/training while showcasing industry involvement in curriculum development. Through these partnerships, Canadian post-secondary schools can share their experience in educational programs tailored to local employers’ needs, while providing Canadian college students with learning opportunities abroad.

Gauvreau, a second-year student in the Digital Video Production program, and Selvarajah, a third-year student in the Journalism – Print and Broadcast program, were chosen to participate by a panel of professors and Greg Murphy, dean of MAD, based on their portfolio presentations and interviews.

“We are incredibly proud of the strong depth of talent at Durham College,” said Fiona Richards, executive director, International Business Development. “Being able to utilize the talents of both our students and faculty in an international setting while providing Chris and Manjula with an opportunity to obtain real-world work experience while gaining exposure to other countries and cultures continues to enhance our reputation for providing experiential learning and bringing our mission ‘the student experience comes first’ to life.”

While in the Caribbean the students will be posting updates to their personal twitter accounts about their adventures using #projectcaribbean.

In addition to what is taking place in the Caribbean, a team of MAD students based at the college will be co-ordinating and leading a one-hour live Riot radio show during each trip (two shows in total). The shows will feature interviews with Selvarajah and ACCC partners in the Caribbean. There will also be daily traveller blogs with short updates on how the team is doing on location.

The students back in Canada will also be creating a website for the project that includes more details about the trip, blogs and samples of footage shot. The site will be updated regularly while the team is away so that people may follow their adventures. Some behind-the-scenes footage may also be posted to showcase the work involved in preparing for the trip.

“This is a phenomenal opportunity for us,” said Selvarajah. “It will give us a chance to take everything we have learned in our classrooms and studios and apply it in a real-life scenario. We plan to make our client happy with the pieces we produce and our college very proud.”