The choice of the next generation could be a new Brooklyn high school for students who want to become “Madmen.”
Borough President Markowitz’s dream of a high school dedicated to teaching Madison Avenue skills to Atlantic Avenue kids has finally been realized with the city’s commitment to the High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media.
The Canarsie-based school, which will open in September, will have an advertising-based curriculum that keeps going and going and going with workshops with real-life ad-world legends, an internship to develop a media campaign for neighborhood organizations and possibly, part-time jobs with media agencies.
But the school has something to offer teens who don’t dream of producing commercials for the Super Bowl.
“It’s not so much the study of advertising as it is the study of effective communication,” said Adaleza Michelena, the school’s principal.
Michelena is banking the school, which will move into Canarsie High School on Rockaway Parkway, will help students be all they can be.
“This is an opportunity [for students] to learn how to use the creativity they have and to channel it in ways that can become a service or actual career.”
Markowitz — who often earns praise for his marketing savvy — had been telling the Department of Education for years to just do it and open a school to prepare students for careers in “the advertising Meccas of the world.”
Projected budget of the school? $1 million.
Getting a good grounding in advertising techniques? Priceless, Markowitz said.
“This school will go a long way in preparing our very talented and creative communities of color for exciting and very lucrative careers in advertising and marketing,” Markowitz said.
The DOE expects that the vast majority of the 108 students in the freshman class will be black or Latino, giving them exposure to an industry where minorities are underrepresented.
Call (877) 520-7747 or e-mail iam.highschool@gmail.com for information.
