A $3.25 million U.S. Department of Education grant to boost digital media education – including gaming, app development, video production, graphic design and digital music composition – for Hispanic and low-income students has been awarded to Cal State San Bernardino and two community college partners.
The five-year Title V Hispanic Serving Institution grant – “Here To Career: Improving Student Success in Digital Media Disciplines” – has CSUSB, Norco Community College in Riverside County and San Bernardino Valley College working together to promote the growing field of digital media, said Brian Heisterkamp, a CSUSB professor of communication studies, who will serve as project director.
“The grant’s purpose is for our three institutions to work together to not only provide our Hispanic and low-income students access to education, but also support their academic success and opportunity to obtain skills leading to involvement in the rapidly growing field of digital media,” Heisterkamp said.
“We will be working with Norco Community College and San Bernardino Valley College to improve transfer readiness for students in those disciplines that include gaming, app development, video production, graphic design and digital music composition,” he said. “Recognizing that the digital media industry depends upon inter-disciplinary, creative teams, each of our campuses will be integrating the high-impact learning practice of problem-based learning into specific courses.”
Along with offering paid internships to students in those fields, CSUSB will also develope a Digital Media Center where students in those disciplines can work on “interdisciplinary projects such as app development that could involve computer programming, graphic design, music production, and video production,” Heisterkamp said.
The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, which provides grants to help HSIs such as Cal State San Bernardino, Norco College, and San Bernardino Valley College expand educational opportunities and 21st century workplace career pathways for Hispanic students.
The HSI Program grants also enable Hispanic Serving Institutions to expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability.
The grant is $650,000 a year for five years starting Oct. 1.
For more information on the Title V grant – “Here To Career: Improving Student Success in Digital Media Disciplines” – contact Brian Heisterkamp, a CSUSB professor of communication studies at bheister@csusb.edu.
For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.