Grade 9 students at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School had a recent opportunity to take their learning outside the classroom.
A career development program project with the school has partnered with local businesses (sponsors) and Red Deer's Shine FM radio station to make an on-air commercial. The program helps teach skills and knowledge outside of the classroom.
This year the business sponsor was The Place To Mortgage.
“We did it last year as well. We had a group of students put together an ad for Kevin's nofrills,” said John Groenen, Grade 9 teacher at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School. “The students write up a sample commercial here at the school and then submit it. The best one (at the school) is picked to go to Shine FM for the day.”
Students wrote and produced a 30-second commercial for the school business sponsor and spent the day at the radio station. They met with staff, learned about radio, and learned how to write and produce a professional commercial for a business, noted Groenen, adding that as part of the project, students were required to learn about the business (The Place To Mortgage) they produced the commercial for.
“Three boys, Logan Gooder-Zimmer, Justin Valentine and Illya Omelyanchuk, all Grade 9 students, put together an ad for The Place To Mortgage in Innisfail,” said Groenen. “They did a good job with it and got to go to the station and spent the day fine-tuning the actual commercial.”
The commercial ran for about one week at the end of March.
Nicole Pillman, of The Place To Mortgage, said the project was a great way for students and youth to be involved with local businesses and to learn about mortgages and financing -- services offered by the Innisfail business.
“This is a great way for The Place To Mortgage to get involved in our community and get the youth involved in what we do,” said Pillman. “The Place To Mortgage is not just mortgages. We are about helping people with financial decisions, whether that is purchases, refinances, renewals, line of credits or even debt consolidation.”
Groenen noted the students' degree of interest in radio production and how tech savvy they were when it came to learning about the equipment and technology used in radio commercial production.
He hoped students would take away not only skills and knowledge but also greater understanding of radio production and business.
“(I hope they acquired) some real-world experience in the world of advertising and also some hands-on use of the technology that they use every day (at Shine FM),” said Groenen. “It helps further the interest that they've already developed in it,” he added, noting the opportunity to learn about the value of advertising.
“If they ever go into business (they've learned) the value of advertising,” he added. “That would be something that these boys are much more aware of than the average student.”
And best of all, added Groenen, the completed commercial was very well done.
“I heard the commercial before it went to final production and it sounded extremely professional,” said Groenen. “It's the type of thing you would expect to hear on the radio. The students did a fantastic job on it.”
John Groenen
"I heard the commercial before it went to final production and it sounded extremely professional. It's the type of thing you would expect to hear on the radio."
