Visitors to Evergreen’s Center for Creative and Applied Media (CCAM) are often surprised by the studio complex, which includes audio, video, TV, animation, and even 3D animation capabilities. The CCAM rivals many commercial and public TV stations in the sophistication of its equipment and personnel, and for the professional-level experiences it provides, owed to a dynamic partnership between students, staff, and faculty, and a critical balance of public and private support.

While the state funded the CCAM facility itself, private donors support equipment purchases and updates that maximize creative and professional development. CCAM students and interns engage in skill-building opportunities from music technology and animation to event planning and production.

Students understand the difference this type of experience can make 
for them:  

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Misael Andrade ’14 interned at the CCAM during his last year at Evergreen. He took responsibility for all aspects of production planning, client services, and post-production. His projects included faculty and class presentations by Skype, TEDx talks, and concerts. He also ran a radio show, managed databases, and taught workshops to fellow students. Describing the experience as “hands-on from the very beginning,” he believes his internship “opened a lot of doors for me.”

Meskerem Johnson ’14 interned in video production. Her favorite piece of equipment was the intercom system between multiple studios. “We didn’t have to struggle to communicate,” said Johnson. “I could talk to the camera operator from the control room.” At one point, she had to communicate on two intercom systems at once—in the theater and the production room. “It was fun and challenging,” she said.

A one-time film school aspirant, Johnson appreciates the investment donors have made in Evergreen students and the CCAM. She said that without Evergreen and the CCAM, she might have found herself attending another college or university. “I’d be in California somewhere and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.”
 

Charles Seeholzer ’14, a second-generation alumnus and former CCAM intern, described production of a TEDx talk as a highlight of his year. “We had three HD cameras running fiber optics, live, from the Communications Building to the CCAM. We were talking remotely to each other, then cutting and broadcasting to YouTube,” he explained. “The CCAM has a very robust infrastructure.”  

Having cross-trained in video, audio, music technology, and teaching, Seeholzer credits his internship for landing his current job at Buchla, an electronic musical instrument maker in Grants Pass, Oregon, one week after graduation.