This year, Media students are learning in a new classroom. Art Room 1, a former health classroom, has been converted into a shared Media production space for the Photography, Yearbook, Music Production, and Media Production classes.
The remodel took place over the summer, with new computers, televisions, carpeting, lighting, a custom center table, and electronics installed.
The Construction Process
Jack Schmidt, the facilities director at Jesuit, said that the process started with taking out the massive sink installed in the room.
“It took three kids to lift it, it was so big,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt also coordinated heavily with the Media Coordinator and Teacher, Dan Falkner, working with him to figure out what the room should look like.
“I would call Mr. Falkner and I’d say Okay, right now the walls are white, what works best with media production. [Mr. Falkner] said ‘Dark walls, the darker the better’, so that was how we came up with the dark gray,” Schmidt said.
According to Schmidt, the Internet and Technology department ordered the televisions and new computers for the classroom.
The remodeling process went relatively smoothly, though it also had many moving parts, creating something of a challenge.
“Creating a schedule and hoping that you meet that schedule, that there’s no delays on wiring or parts or laminate or flooring. It’s kind of a domino effect. And if one domino doesn’t fall just right then the rest of them don’t fall at all,” Schmidt said.
The People and the Room
Kasey Engel, a senior in the Advanced Media production class, said that the new media room is a new and improved version of the old one.
“There’s a lot of really great features like lighting and green screens and backgrounds that we didn’t necessarily get access to last year,” Engel said.
However, she didn’t mean to disparage the old room either.
“The room last year wasn’t bad at all. It was just made more for a computer lab rather than a room made for media,” Engel said.
The new equipment means some new responsibilities, with the school giving a large amount of funding to the new room.
“The end goal is to not break the equipment, or you know, just treat it gently,” Engel said.
But Engel said that it wasn’t the room or equipment that makes good content.
“It’s not so much the new room that helps make the content good. It’s the different people and their writing style, their editing style, their video making style, you can make the same type of content if you have a computer in a shed. The room itself doesn’t make the content,” Engel said.
According to Schmidt, part of the reason why the renovation went so smoothly was because he knew his sub contractors so well.
“I have really good subcontractors that I’ve worked with for several years and we get along really well. And if I have something that we need to change midstream, they are very accommodating. And they don’t gouge you like, ‘oh no, you can’t do that,’[…] I think I’m very blessed to have great people around me,” Schmidt said.
Engel said that she didn’t have any nostalgia for the old room, but that the room itself contained some great people.
“All the classmates in there, we had a really tight bond. It was really great to be with them,” Engel said.
Schmidt said that he was excited to see how the media students are using the room.
“It’s fun doing the project, but then it’s also neat to see how it’s used when it’s done. [It] gives me great enjoyment to see that I did a good job and that the students enjoy it and it’s very helpful to educate [the students] further,” Schmidt said.
“Father Hayes said way back[…] He told me ‘Jack, if you want to be successful with whatever you do here on campus, surround yourself with good people’,” Schmidt said.
