The Department of Photography and Imaging offers Community Collaborations, a course team taught by Lorie Novak, Associate Professor of Photography and Imaging, and Erika DeVries, Instructor of Photography and Imaging, through which advanced Photography and Imaging students teach photography to local high school students after school. The collaborating high schools are chosen to give photography experience and access to students that do not have photography available in their school curriculum. There is no cost to the high schools or the high school students - cameras and materials are supplied by the Department. The sessions are led by advanced undergraduate Photography majors who team teach in pairs, groups of 6-8 teens in the Tisch 721 Broadway darkrooms. The NYU students meet with a faculty advisor once a week as a class for information gathering and advisory sessions. The Photography and Imaging students gain valuable access to new communities, gain teaching experience, and learn from another age group of thinkers and visual makers. High School students gain access to the NYU college campus and atmosphere, develop visual and verbal language skills for self expression, and gain college age student mentors. As a result of their participation last year, two Tisch students were employed after graduation as high school photography instructors.
