With a goal to increase enrollment, I was asked to develop a recruitment initiative centered on exposing the quality of CAM faculty, students and programs to high school students. With that charge, I created the vision, and strategic plan for a program that I titled “CAM Connects”. Working in collaboration with academic advisors, faculty and the Dean, we established the structure, roles and responsibilities, recruited faculty, and reached out to area high schools.

CAM Connects offered high school programs, three unique opportunities to engage with our faculty, students and programs.

CAM Connects: Master Class CAM faculty present discipline-specific master classes in high schools, designed with learning outcomes that focus on building knowledge and skills, and on impacting student dispositions. Student engagement, interactivity, and hands-on learning are central to activities designed for the class, promoting the experience of art making with guidance from arts experts.

CAM Connects: Creative Industries The creative industries are organizations and agencies that produce and present the arts and cultural activities, providing employment opportunities for artists. Creative enterprises and creative occupations account for over 186,000 jobs in Colorado alone, making it the fifth largest employment cluster. CAM Connects: Creative Industries includes both on-campus and in-classroom presentations. CAM faculty focus the presentation and discussion on increasing the students’ knowledge of what the creative industries are, employment opportunities for artists within those industries, and how students can prepare themselves for future employment in the arts.

CAM Connects: On-Campus Student groups visiting campus with the goal of learning more about arts programs and touring CAM facilities will be guided by a CAM faculty member or lab manager. Participants will see specialized facilities, learn how the facilities support student learning and art making, and gain insights into what our university campus looks and feels like. Where there is a focused discussion on a specific arts discipline (e.g., Digital Animation or Recording Arts), students will learn about what the program is, what kind of courses and work students are doing in the program, and what kind of careers our students pursue after graduation.