High-impact practices (HIPs) are educational projects that are known to help students apply what they learn. We value these high-impact practices because they give students the chance to apply what they are learning in real production settings, work with campus and community partners, build professional habits, and create portfolio-ready work that reaches audiences in and beyond the classroom.

The year has seen students working on several HIP projects outside our standard curriculum.

“Beyond the Buzzer” is a co-production between the College of Arts and Sciences, the department, and Athletics is led by students Eli Bieker and Alexis Randolph, with help from Sylvia Guertin. The series features four student-athletes and explores how they manage school, sports, and life in a Division I program. Read all about the first season and see the videos. The second season is in post-production.

Scene Setters features stories about the “hidden” places around campus to document the Hidden Stories audio project from idea generation through performance. Students Sydney Baxter, Eli Bieker, Scott Leslie, and Devin Nguyen have been following the Scene Setters group and Wonderlust Productions as they gather stories from members of the St. Thomas community. The students turn those stories into dramatic scenes, and record full audio stories (like radio plays) that will be integrated around campus. The project will be finalized over the summer.

We also had CBS News’ Major Garrett join our students for “Deep Focus,”a long-form studio show hosted by Adam Mueller. This program had several firsts, including a live, in-person audience asking questions, a brand-new set and lighting configuration, and the longest show we have produced in our new studio, coming in around 42 minutes.

Early May featured our first live, streaming studio show, “Elevating ‘Elevating the Arts.” Producer Abby Madsen led the charge on this program, which brings several Elevating the Arts grant winners into conversation with Grace Woelfel about how their projects raised the profile of the arts in and around campus.

The program was also supported by an Elevating the Arts grant from the College of Arts and Sciences. Elevating the Arts grants are designed to raise the profile of the artistic energy on campus and inspire students to reflect on the arts in their lives.

In addition, our students continue to work and intern on movie sets, at local and regional stations, and with agencies and organizations directly in or adjacent to media. These independent projects are part of a larger pattern: Emerging Media students are not only preparing for professional work, they are already doing it.