Digital Media Institute at InterTech launches new program

Special to 318 Forum

Designers with interest in advertising have a new avenue for advancing their education and careers in the field.

The Digital Media Institute at InterTech has launched a one-of-a-kind advertising design program. The two-year curriculum presents the fundamentals of modern advertising for traditional and new media platforms. The program includes advertising theory and practices taught through a portfolio-driven model. Students will learn career skills and apply them to a capstone project that includes real-work experiences and employers.

“We are going to select and train the all-inone ninjas everyone wants to hire,” said John Miralles, executive director of DMI. “This is the kind of person the modern employer wants to hire.”

Students who enroll in the advertising design program will learn to design for interactive platforms, motion media, 3D animation, digital photography and video. They also will learn the business of advertising, marketing and demographics as they create digital and social media campaigns. Graduates will leave with a compelling multicomponent portfolio and be ready to take advantage of DMI’s placement assistance.

“We are a unique, small school,” Miralles said. “We have a very narrow focus on the programs we offer. Modern companies want to hire someone who understands how to design, how to sell and how to create campaigns on different media and social platforms. They need to know how to deal with design constraints, how to monitor, update and improve performance, to create digital, web and social campaigns that funnel people into the business.”

The program will be the first two-year associate degree DMI offers. Miralles said students will learn the advanced skillset they need in a fundamentally modern environment. The program will prepare graduates to work in small or large advertising agencies, corporate marketing departments and for companies across most industries and verticals. The accredited two-year program is taught on the state-of-the-art DMI campus at 2031 Kings Highway in Shreveport, with general education courses taught online.

The program already has captured the attention of local advertising professionals.

“It’s exciting to have this unique approach to advertising education coming to our area,” said Amy Jones, president of the American Advertising Federation Shreveport-Bossier chapter. “We hope this program will attract a diverse group of students who will remain here after graduation and contribute to the local advertising community.”

“AAFSB is focused on engaging these students while they pursue their degree,” Jones said. “Through our student-centric events like CommNEXT coming this fall and Agency Crawl in spring 2020, we hope to bridge the gap between students and professionals and show local advertising students what the Shreveport-Bossier advertising industry has to offer.”

“One of the unique things about DMI is that we are a very professionally oriented environment and staff,” Miralles said. “We are people who have done this work in the real world before. We are qualified and engaged with the students and employers in ways traditional schools can’t be. We went out and talked to local companies, including the R&P agency and others and got input into the occupationally driven curriculum. It’s a selective enrollment program that really doesn’t have a peer here.”

Scholarships and federal financial aid are available. Tops-Tech and the GI bill are also accepted. For more information about the program and DMI, visit the website at dmi.edu.