Why CNM?

There are many reasons for attending the Center for New Media. Here are some of them:

• We don’t just prepare students for working in an ad agency or web design shop. We prepare students to work in many industries including life sciences, biotech, banking and finance, insurance, and health care.
• Over the past three years our enrollment has grown 26%.
• We cap our enrollment of computer-based classes at 24 and our student to teacher ratio is 18:1.
• The Center for New Media is interdisciplinary taking the best from graphic design, interactive media, computer information systems, and business.
• The Center for New Media has nearly 400 students who are taught by six full time faculty and 19 part time faculty in a wide variety of graphic arts and web development courses
• We are currently developing partnerships with the Education for the Arts program housed at the Epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo.
• For our Animation students, we are developing an articulation agreement with Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto, Canada.
• CNM students are taught a core set of skills along with discipline-specific information. The core knowledge is at both the beginner and advanced stages of their programs.
• Our faculty lead our unit in development of new knowledge, recognition of emergent trends, and the fostering of teamwork throughout the center.
• The term “new media” applies to the divergent ways of organizing, creating and delivering information because of computer technologies. It incorporates software and coding languages that deal with design, interactivity, dynamic web experience, web to database applications, and web-based functionality.
• New media is important for all industries because:
• The dot-com era never ended
• All business is “e-business”
• People entering the marketplace are expected to have a vast array of tools
• The creative marketplace has higher expectations to do it all
• The use of media, interactivity, and visual methods for providing information have become central to daily operations.
• Our program develops emergent professionals who are well skilled in their specific area and are generalists in a number of related areas. For example: a web designer who knows design but can also discuss web development and content management.
• The majority of our students are from the Kalamazoo region, but many are from SW Michigan, and several international (recently: Malaysia, Japan, and South Africa).
• Our students learn by doing. They work on real-world projects, many for actual clients and learn with side-by-side instruction.
• Our students find the faculty approachable, knowledgeable, caring, professional, and wonderful mentors.
• The Center for New Media is home to the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International (KAFI) which has become the premier animation festival in the Midwest.
• Our graduates walk out of CNM with a professional portfolio, specific training on how to make a client presentation, and plenty of practical industry experience.
• Being downtown means you will already be familiar with the vibrant business community in the region; most importantly, especially for our best students, the business community will already be familiar with them.

The Center for New Media at Kalamazoo Valley Community College
100 East Michigan Avenue
P.O. Box 4070
Kalamazoo, MI 49003-4070
269.373.7920
newmedia@kvcc.edu