With student-led input, Lloydminster Catholic School Division has teamed up with Synergy Credit Union for the new Synergy Studios at Holy Rosary High School.
The repurposing of the space began in August and has 25 computer stations for the students, three studios and an audio room.
Communications Media Teacher Skye Ferguson shared that the new dedicated space to communications will allow several learning activities to be happening simultaneously.
“So I have three studios at the back with three different backdrops and lighting setups. So kids can flow in and out of them. This way we are not all waiting on one studio. There’s flexibility for kids to be constantly learning all the time. Then they have got the computer setups as well as the audio room. So this morning I had three kids in the audio room recording their song. Then I had two kids recording on the green screen in the studio and then other kids working on Ipads doing some animation for their film.”
Synergy CEO Glenn Stang was happy to be in the student-led space and shared the importance of the cooperative movement’s values and by extension, concern for the community. He felt that a future project could be involving the students to develop financial literacy tools targeting youth.
“At the Credit Union we are always working hard to try to figure out a way to engage with the community around emerging issues. Like right now, fraud is a really big one. So we wonder, could we use the youth in that regard, that they can help us better communicate with youth around these values and these things that are important to us, to see if they gain importance within the community. So I think there is a project there for us in the future.”
Ferguson added the new Synergy Studios will cater to 125 students per day learning communication media skills.