At Stanislaus State, there are a variety of majors for students to choose from, including Creative Media. The Creative Media major was launched in 2019 by a group of professors.
If students are interested in digital marking, journalism, or see themselves working for companies like Google or Apple doing creative work, Creative Media could be an option.
The origin of this major begun when Dr, Shannon Stevens came to Stan State in 2014, hired specifically to advise the student newspaper, the Signal.
But Stevens quickly realized that the Signal was too isolated from important parts of the campus. She was also accustomed to working with a team of people that have different skillsets such as photographers, designers and artists.
“First Roxanne Robbin and I, then Jessica Gomula and I started meeting regularly and started studying similar majors to this from all over the country and state,” Stevens explained. “We realized we have all these tremendous courses around campus that really can prepare students for this career.”
Stevens added that the group spent more than two years just studying and figuring out how a new major could work, and ultimately got the pilot version of the major approved.
Creative Media is a combination of different majors, taking the most important elements of the different majors and assembled them together to provide students with the digital media interest a better and more efficient way to study.
“This major differentiates from other majors because it is very broad and doesn’t stay focused on just one subject,” said Kimberly Horne (junior, Creative Media).
Even though this major is relatively new for our campus, it has been around for quite some time in other institutions.
Companies also started focusing on digital marketing and creative marketing, making the demand for students in this type of major rise.
“California has a huge entertainment industry that employs all kinds of people from marketing and advertising, game design to film making to making commercial videos, journalism to news stories,” said Jessica Gomula, Creative Media faculty advisor.
As the Creative Media major started getting more and more enrollees, more transferred students started choosing Creative Media major too.
“I chose the Creative Media major because it entails a lot of different areas of the creative process. It isn’t focused on just one area. Instead, it explores subjects like design, video, filmography, compositing and more,” said Horne. 
When it comes to students who are already studying at Stan State, some of the Art major students have changed their major to Creative Media even though they could apply for BFA in art major to learn more about digital media.
“BFA programs primarily prepare students to go into the graduate school to get MFAs, to continue being practicing artist, whereas the creative media major is not geared towards master’s program, it’s geared towards getting students to career routine,” explained Gomula.
It is a new major with lots of uncertainties but without a doubt, the launching of this major was successful based on its popularity and potential possibilities. It not only helps students better prepare for their career after graduation but also gives them a chance to work in the Signal office.
“Anybody who works at the Signal has an opportunity to explore different skillsets and come up with their own ideas, and there is just so much room to do what you want to do and to grow in the ways you want to grow,” Stevens said. “Number one, you’re going to have a stronger portfolio. Number two, it is an actual workplace and I will teach you how to be a good employee in a group setting and ability to work across fields.”
The major was launching in 2019 and the very first batch of Creative Media students are graduating this semester.