Ambient music plays
when you get to university I assume it's going to be
very difficult to manage work, or relationships or family
I think university is the time where you have to find your path
for your future and all that
I think you'd have a lot more freedom
I think the pressure I would be a lot bigger but you wouldn't really have so much
to rely on
yeah, basically for me like high school's like the important thing for me
finishing I want to be able to set a good example for my younger sister who's
going into year 10 next year
and say to her like well, I finished year 12 so I guess you can finish is well
we have some really big issues trying to get kids to do further education it's really hard for
them to sort of see themselves beyond
that Frankston sort of world.
Their knowledge of education
and its experience at a tertiary school
or a university is quite limited
the definition in this program for these students is
to look at education outside of high school
the week with us is like a mini diploma
it's a little kind of sample of what they would do if they studied here for the two years
this program kinda makes kids
have an accessibility to something that they just wouldn't
even know exists in the world.
On Monday we arrived and I was like "woah, there's more than one RMIT building!
like really!"
So the week's divided up, on location and in studio
pretty much how it is in studying the Diploma
a lot of the stuff we plan for the Monday
is around just making them feel comfortable.
The Monday brief is a still life exercise
so we give them a variety of props, plates cups, coloured paper
and a whole lot of sugar.
The first day, which is kinda exciting for them, ends with a lolly shoot
we set them up we put them in different angles we use the camera different
angles and
took photos with the lollies
On the Tuesday and part of the Wednesday we take them out and they just photograph
around the city. So we have half of them in studio and we have half of them
out in the city taking photos with guides.
With the goal of getting at least one shot that they can then exhibit
for the end of the week.
We get dressed up, we do makeup if that's what people want
I'm colouring in her eyes to stand out against a black mask
to match her blue corset
they get to experience both I guess and what it really is like working in
studio environment and
what it's like having pressure outside with a brief and time
and all of that kind of thing.
It felt like a normal class
but more interactive and more, you can communicate
freely other than just sit down and focus you can just
be loose and be creative
The last few days in the city
made me consider if I should be a photographer, it's actually fun.
For the Thursday it's just
in the lab.
It was pretty interesting because we've never really done much editing
That was the biggest highlight.
when I first went into the room
they put us onto photoshop
The ins and outs of it and the basics
and stuff that we're gonna be up to use throughout the week
I've had a fun time playing around with it and learning new skills
in such a short time they were able to create something extraordinary
where normally they wouldn't have had that opportunity
starting with nothing and ending up with something
whether it's a film or some fantastic photographs
our very first lot of students we taught in 2011.
I met three of them and they are applying come back to RMIT
to study our course and the higher ed course.
If we actually had a charge what this would cost as a program to run
outside of being fully funded by RMIT, there's no way
that we'd be able to get kids to you today
here
It's such an amazing thing to be able to give kids the opportunity
to come in, to have a real insight not only into
to what university life is like but also to what city life
is like
I didn't know what to expect
coming in but it was actually really fun
I actually might do photography in the future. It's very interesting.
I've always wanted to go to University to see how things work.
and I've already learned a lot.
I would definitely see myself coming to this uni
or any other RMIT, TAFE
I was actually kinda scared about uni, but now I'm actually kind still scared but
I'm okay.
I've changed my mind about uni, yes I probably could see myself coming
to uni
before, I was very skeptical
about how things were going to work out, what I was going to do
this definitely changed
This experience has changed my mind a lot, I want to come to uni now