Can you see yourself in any of the following scenarios:

* Your community-based cultural group would like to develop a website using advanced multimedia authoring as an effective way of getting your story told.

* You work for a multi-site youth-serving organization that would benefit from a computer network that would encourage better communication and information sharing.

* You are a labor organizer and would like to learn how to use sophisticated media skills in organizing campaigns.

If any of the above strikes you as an interesting, valuable way to spend your time, you should check out the Community Media and Technology Program (www.cpcs.umb.edu/cmt) at the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS).

For students and recent graduates interested in community media and technology, last week brought nothing but good news to CPCS.

First, we got a letter from the Corporation for National Service announcing their intent to continue our CTC VISTA project (www. cpcs.umb.edu/vista) for a third year at the level of $744,000. The CTC-VISTA Project places and supports VISTA members in community technology centers (CTCs) all across the country, an exciting opportunity for recent grads thinking about the future.

For continuing students interested in this field, we successfully completed our search for the first full-time faculty member in the Community Media and Technology Program.

At that time we received notification from President Bulger’s Office that we have been given the green light to develop the final proposal for the new CMT major.

Finally, with a $150,000 gift from Monster.com, we are moving ahead with the construction of the Clark Taylor Information Technology Center, a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as a significant point of access and training for CPCS students, staff, and faculty generally as well as for majors in the CMT program.

For recent graduates who are undecided about the immediate future, the CTC VISTA Project provides a unique opportunity to serve a low income community and, at the same time, learn valuable technology skills that point the way to interesting and productive careers in community media and technology. It’s also a good option for students considering taking a year off to gain some real world public service experience in this emerging arena-with modest financial support.

Placements are currently available throughout Boston and across the country for a late August preservice orientation and start. For more information, check out the project web site, call VISTA Leader Matt Crichton at 617-287-7122, or stop by the Project office on the third floor of Wheatley, across from the CPCS computer lab.

Meanwhile for continuing students, recent grads, and practitioners in the field who are interested in the academic area of community media and technology, CPCS currently offers a number of credited options that may be of interest.

Matriculated students are able to take advantage of a four competency Community Media and Technology concentrations that can be used in conjunction with existing CPCS degrees such as Community Planning, Labor Studies, and Legal Education. For people who have already earned a BA degree or are simply interested in a focused educational experience in this area, CPCS offers a six-competency, free-standing certificate in Community Media and Technology.

And if the demands of your job make it difficult to commit yourself to attending regularly scheduled classes, you’ll be happy to know that CPCS is now offering the entire certificate online, through web-based, asynchronous instructional activities that help you work on real world problems in real organizations with other like-minded students. For more information check out the online certificate at: www.conted.umb.edu/dl/cmt/index.html.

Students interested in either the concentration or the certificate in community media and technology are expected to demonstrate competency in six areas: Media Literacy, Community Action, Analyzing Media, Media and Community Building, Using Technology, and Developing a Media/Technology Strategy. Because CPCS is a competency-based institution, students who already have some of these skills may be able to demonstrate competence from “prior learning.”

Through the CMT Program we hope to create a reflective community of activists prepared to use communications media and information technologies in the service of digital equity for underserved individuals and organizations. At the end of the program you may be surprised to find yourself among the key people helping your organization or group to make use of twenty-first century media and technologies.

Professor Reebee Garofalo is the Coordinator of the Community Media and Technology Program at CPCS; Peter Miller is the Director of the CTC VISTA Project.