Ithaca College MBA in Entertainment and Media Students Complete Projects

By Margaret Shackell, May 1, 2024

Explore Videos Highlighting MBAEM projects

Graduate students specializing in Entertainment and Media Management, Ithaca College MBA EM students, will release videos documenting their entertainment projects: The Young Blood Discovery Festival at Deep Dive and Who’s in Your Corner? a docu-short about substance abuse.

  • The team who ran the Young Blood Discovery Festival created seven short form promotional videos, highlighting performances by two Ithaca bands, and regional headliners Sun Parade.
  • Who’s in Your Corner? a docu-short focuses on the issues surrounding addiction and the impact it can have on one community. It also honors the employees and clients of the ADC (Alcohol & Drug Council) of Tompkins County.

These projects reflect 8 months of hands-on work by the MBA EM cohort, from an idea to a completed entertainment product: planning, budgeting, pitching, production, marketing, and analysis. These experiences create skills that prepare our students for careers in a changing, challenging mediascape.

“Watching the growth and learning that our students have gone through has been inspirational." said Dr. Margaret Shackell, Director of the MBA EM program. Peabody winning producer Steve Rathe, who has led the production practicum, adds “With social media natives, we’re learning as well as teaching.”

This past March, the Young Blood Discovery Festival hosted over 200 attendees at Deep Dive at the foot of Cayuga Lake. The Ithaca ensembles Good Head and Lost Mary's opened for the popular Sun Parade –in an evening including hard rock, folk music, punk, and a live orchestra. The festival aims to promote the bands with seven short videos highlighting those performances.

Who’s in Your Corner?, addresses substance addiction in the Ithaca area. It follows a struggling student, a friend he didn’t expect, and a surprising source of help in the community. The video features ADC staff interviews and the words of its former clients. The production honors services offered by the recently closed addiction treatment center.

South Hill Entertainment is a project of the Ithaca College MBA in Entertainment Media Management program. Thanks to Deep Dive in Ithaca, the staff and clients of ADC of Tompkins County, and Wegmans for YBDF catering. 

Find the videos at https://southhillentertainment.org/