VCU students will have three new interdisciplinary minors to choose from this fall, expanding options for those interested in storytelling and scriptwriting, using innovative media in art education, and leveraging creative expression as a powerful tool to improve community health.
Public Health and the Arts
Offered by the School of Public Health in collaboration with VCUarts, the minor in Public Health and the Arts is designed for students with an interest in careers at the intersection of health, nonprofits, public agencies and creative organizations.
The minor takes a creative approach to confront real-world challenges in and have an impact on community health. Students will build a foundation in the principles that shape community well-being, from history and policy to public health and health promotion. They will also explore how visual art, performance, sound, moving image and design can community health information in ways that data and policy alone cannot. The minor also includes hands-on experience working directly in the Richmond community through internships and applied projects with real-world outcomes.
“The minor in Public Health and the Arts is an outcome of growing research in public health and the arts led by faculty from both VCU Health and the School of the Arts,” says James Wiznerowicz, associate dean for academic affairs. “Coursework reveals the complex nature of services and policies around health. Students will also have an opportunity to connect their creative practices and develop work related to advocacy, visual elements of health communication, design principles, and other means of connection and messaging around wellness and well-being.”
Creative Technology Instruction
In an increasingly digital professional landscape, the ability to develop and teach innovative media skills is essential. However, current teacher training requirements do not sufficiently address the many ways to create digital media or equip K-12 students and informal education spaces with the pedagogical or technical expertise needed to teach digital media production.
The Creative Technology Instruction minor, offered by the Department of Art Education, aims to fill that gap by examining critical approaches to teaching digital media making. It was developed in collaboration with departments across VCUarts, as well as other VCU programs in Mass Communication, Computer Science and Teacher Education, and is designed to be applicable and accessible to students of all majors.
The Creative Technology Instruction minor merges digital/media arts history with practical skills in visual, sonic, and interactive media creation. Students complete hands-on projects while critically engaging with pedagogical techniques. This dual focus equips students to teach digital media creation, applying a critical lens to how these tools are instructed and utilized. The minor also provides opportunities for other digital media making and education majors to utilize and expand their skills in educational settings.
“The minor in Creative Technology Instruction meets the growing need for certified educators and the increasing use of different types of technology increases,” Wiznerowicz says. “This minor could reach any student who engages with technology instruction or someone preparing to be in the classroom with digital instruction support.”
Screenwriting
Students from across a range of disciplines have consistently expressed an interest in screenwriting. The minor in Screenwriting, offered by the Cinema program, provides students with the knowledge and skills to develop professional-level scripts. It also equips them to become better storytellers and filmmakers.
Courses establish a foundation in writing for cinema, playwriting and the mechanics of screenwriting, while a senior writing portfolio provides a hands-on capstone to the minor.
“The Screenwriting minor is the first to focus on visual narration that is used in films, plays, video game design, content creation, and many other forms of media-based presentation,” Wiznerowicz says.
Lead image: The Humanity of the Heart mural, located in the VCU School of Medicine’s McGlothlin Medical Education Center, was designed by interior design students in the mOb studiO working in partnership with Richmond artist Hamilton Glass. The mural memorializes Bruce Oliver Tucker, a Black man from Dinwiddie County who died at the Medical College of Virginia on May 25, 1968. Without his family’s knowledge or consent, his heart and kidneys were removed, and his heart was transplanted into a white man—marking this as Virginia’s first and the world’s 16th human cardiac transplant. (Photo by Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)
