Wednesday, December 20, 2006

High school students put advertising skills to work

Argen Duncan El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Socorro High School students are taking over from professional advertising designers.

Instead of paying an outside party to create ads, Superintendent Cheryl Wilson has asked business students to design newspaper advertisements and enlisted others to voice radio ads, which brings them experience and credit for those efforts. The community also can see and hear students' work.

Wilson said it was unusual to her that the district paid so much for advertising. If that was going to continue, she wanted to get the most "educational bang" for the buck.

"It's going to be the only way that we take out ads any more," Wilson said.

Announcements for school board meetings are an exception to that rule.

High school principal Dan Padilla the effort aims to use students to recognize students and programs. The district is involving the youth in public service announcements and ads during sporting events.

"And as a principal, I feel that kids in the community would rather hear from kids than a standard broadcast," Padilla said.

With the newspaper ads, he is working to involve students in more community actions, Padilla said.

Business teacher Janis Armijo was planning to send Wilson around 45 finished newspaper advertisements, representing work from about 70 percent of her students. Armijo expects the ads to run in the holiday issue of El Defensor Chieftain.

"It gives them some real-world application of their projects," Armijo said. "They have the opportunity to see it in a newspaper, and that gives them a little more recognition, and most of them took it more seriously than when it was just for me to see."

Sophomore Jocelyn Padilla designed a general-purpose ad in two days.

"I thought it was pretty cool," she said.

Padilla called the project "an opportunity to show everybody how students can use their imaginations to do stuff."

Junior Jevon Ngo spent two days creating a "happy holidays" ad.

The assignment made Ngo proud of where he came from, and he felt honored to do the work, he said. It felt good to do what the district normally pays others to do, Ngo continued.

Padilla said the project was something different for her. Ngo said he both applied what he had learned in class and experienced something new.

"I hope they keep doing this, because it will open kids' eyes," he said. "It changes your outlook on your school."

Padilla said such work shows the community what students learn in school.

The project began when Wilson e-mailed Armijo with the idea in mid-November. Armijo took the concept to class.

The students took ideas from previous ads and designed their pieces in Microsoft Publisher. Some students created holiday ads, some made general ones and others used soccer or basketball themes.

They didn't have time to finish the ads and get Wilson's approval before the deadlines in November.

Armijo assumes Wilson will contact her if the district needs more advertisements.

"We haven't worked out the fine details yet," Armijo said.

She said it was nice of Wilson to think of the students for ad building. No one had ever asked her about doing such work before.

Also, for several weeks, local radio station KMXQ-FM has been running student-recorded advertisements. Students were scheduled to record again Monday.

Wilson said the experience would give them practice in public speaking.

Seniors Joseph Romero and Kristen Armijo, captains of their respective soccer teams, recorded a 30-second ad telling about athletics and thanking supporters in early November.

High school Principal Dan Padilla called them out of class and went over the content about 40 minutes before they recorded the ad.

Romero and Armijo wrote a script, which changed a lot. They listened to a previous advertisement by students Cole Mounyo and Skyler Gerber to help learn how to speak for the situation and practiced a couple of times.

"It was kind of nerve-wracking," Armijo said.

Armijo didn't think she and Romero sounded like themselves in the ad. Both students said the experience was fun.

"It was definitely something different," Romero also said.

Romero agreed recording the ad was a little nerve-wracking; and knowing his work would be broadcast made him a bit nervous.

aduncan@dchieftain.com

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