Connecting to young people is one of the many ways that Klein College of Media and Communication is giving back. “Awakening Your Creativity” is a virtual four-part creative workshop series for high school students who are interested in digital media and design. The series is hosted by Klein Futures, a high school outreach initiative led by Klein.
The series began after Tarahgee Morris, a senior advertising major, reached out to Kalie Wertz, assistant director of external affairs at Klein, requesting to work with high school students who want to develop their creativity. Wertz contacted teachers and administrators from a variety of local schools to identify students who were interested in learning more about how creative thinking works at a collegiate level.
“It's just an opportunity for us to showcase some of our students, share what you could learn at Klein,” Wertz says. “It's just a really open, nice, fun space for students to come and not feel pressured like ‘You have to go to this school.’ It's just really casual.”
Morris is responsible for designing and presenting the content of the workshops. His goal is to help students think about how they can express creativity in their daily lives. Although his coursework and extracurricular obligations put him on a tight schedule, he made a commitment to guide students as they nurture their creative ideas.
“I felt as though this was the perfect time and opportunity to give these resources to students, especially during this time,” Morris says. “There’s a lot of Zoom fatigue, COVID is happening, a lot of social unrest is happening. And I feel as though students now are delving more into their creativity more and more often but they don’t have the resources that college students have, they don’t have the resources that industry professionals have.”
In September, Wertz and Morris put on the first workshop of the series, “Bread or the Butter?: Fundamentals of Creative Thinking”. The workshop, which was attended by over 40 high school students and instructors, featured discussion and reflection activities that challenged the students to tap into their creativity. Leslye Saul, career and technical education program manager for the School District of Philadelphia, found that students were receptive to Morris. Calling the workshop “fresh” and “different,” Saul was pleased that the content kept students engaged and that Morris could relate to students on a more familiar level than an older instructor. “I think that makes a huge difference that Tarahgee is closer in age,” she says.
Wertz recognizes that many of the high school students already have a solid foundation of creative skills but believes that Klein students can provide them with valuable insight about turning their interests into professional opportunities. “Seeing that they enjoy those things and they could actually make a career that they didn't realize as a really viable thing is really what we're hoping for the series,” she says. Wertz also encourages more Klein students to participate in forthcoming Klein Futures activities that impact the lives of high school students.
Morris is confident that the series will be beneficial for the high school students’ personal, academic and professional lives. “The number one thing I hope is that it opens their minds,” he says. “Whether they hear one nugget of information or the entire presentation impacts them, or just the way...I choose to interact with them, [I hope it] opens their minds to new possibilities.”
Each workshop of the series is held on the third Wednesday of each month of the semester. The workshop in November will feature a Klein student panel. Anyone interested in attending the remainder of the workshops can register here.