By Colin Morgan.
Lehman College, along with the City University of New York (CUNY), announced funding for a New Media Jobs Incubator and an Innovation Lab, a project that will help entrepreneurial and job-seeking digital media students. The $4.6 million project is a collaboration between Lehman College and two other CUNY campuses: Macaulay Honors College and Hostos Community College.
The collaboration and pooled resources of the three colleges will strengthen Lehman’s existing digital media courses and provide new ones. Students will have access to better resources and classes in animation, game design, digital graphics, music production and several other digital media fields.
As part of the project, Lehman will be creating a new major and Honors path containing courses that will give students hands-on time with several types of digital media.
The project will also provide students opportunities for business development. Skills such as entrepreneurship, marketplace analysis, social media marketing and distribution will be taught to students with the goal of helping create successful start-up businesses.
“I think it is a good idea,” said Valencia Starr, a computer science major.“I was thinking about going into video game development, so this interests me.”
Associate Professor Michael Ferraro conceived the project and was able to gain funding from New York State thanks to Governor Cuomo’s CUNY 2020 plan, which hopes to spur local economic development by creating more jobs by the year 2020. “The State is pleased to provide funding that will help CUNY continue to offer a world-class education to hundreds of thousands of students, while also supporting new jobs and investment in the surrounding communities,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press release.
The multi-campus Media Program will grant students the opportunity to gain experience with new digital content. The program aspires to graduate about 200 candidates per year as well as set 24 new businesses in motion within the next few years. Underrepresented groups will have the opportunity of being recruited to a program that will create a new major, honors track, and opportunity for business development.
Lehman’s job incubator is on the third floor of 2501 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY. The New Media Job Incubator at Hostos Community College will be at 610 Exterior St, Bronx, NY.