Independent Study Mentorship (ISM)
ISM is a class offered at Sandra Day O'Connor, as well as other Northside High Schools that allows students to gain experience in a future career or hobby by mentoring with a professional in a field of their choice.
The class is designed to prepare students for college with resume building and essay preparation as well as college comparisons.
The capstone project for the course is a 'product' which is an item that is applicable to the field that the student is studying that they develop with their mentor throughout the duration of the second semester.
Michael Land
Michael Land started in Technical Theater at San Angelo Central High School (Troupe 3440) when a friend suggested, “take Tech Theater…it’s easy and she lets you leave early.”
Turns out it wasn’t easy, never left early and over 30 years later is still working in the industry he grew to love.
He spent 2 years at Angelo State University where he was co-manager of the campus PAC and designed and programmed many shows.
He joined the professional world when he took a summer job at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, which turned into 3 years, where he worked as a lighting tech, programmer and designer on multiple shows.
For the last 23 years he has been the Field Service Manager and ETC Factory Authorized Tech at Texas Scenic Company and has traveled the country installing lighting systems in high schools, churches and performing arts centers.
Mentor Visits
We had many mentor visits, but the most interesting ones were the visit to the MegaLite headquarters, the Texas Scenic Company shop/office tour, the backstage tour at Sotomayor High School, and the backstage tour at The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
These visits were very helpful for me as they showed me a wide variety of different lighting systems so that I would be better able to create my own system.
Product Development
The product I decided to create with my mentor is a renovation for the Sandra Day O'Connor High School auditorium.
The facility was built in the 90s without any full-scale renovation effort in the years since and only small acquisitions made by the directors with proceeds from the shows put on by the department, leading to sub-par technology and limited learning opportunities for students interested in pursuing a career in lighting.
The budget we chose for the renovation was $200,000, a number that we agreed was reasonable for the district to invest in updating the system.
Because the budget was so limiting, however, we chose to also design a second system with an unrealistic, but much more interesting, $200,000,000 budget.
These two renovation proposals make up my product and will be given to the directors of the Sandra Day O'Connor High School theater program after completion.