Decker spurs creativity in multimedia program

BLOOMINGDALE -- Renee Decker is new to the classroom at Jefferson County Joint Vocational School, but her goal is to spur creativity among her students in the multimedia and design program.

Decker, a Steubenville native, began her new position in August and said she is excited to get acclimated with her students and new role. She graduated from Steubenville High School in 2000 and Mount Union University but resided in North Carolina for 24 years while her husband served in the military. She gained experience as a director of communications for one ministry and conducted promotions and outreach for another, plus she was an elementary school teacher. She returned to the area following her husband's retirement and said she was eager to serve the JVS and the community.

"There's something different about the Ohio Valley. There's an excitement of growth and change and we wanted to be part of that," she said. "We wanted to come back to the community and get involved with its comeback."

Decker has worked with Bobbyjon Bauman, founder and director of Sycamore Youth Center, to develop an elementary-level Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization in Steubenville and she found another opportunity to fulfill her passion to impact kids at the JVS. Now she is using her skills to inspire the 12 students in her program.

"My main goal is to make it a creative design team where they assume leadership roles," Decker explained. "They will learn to tell stories and develop strategies for problem solving. I want to teach them to think creatively and use the newest technological tools, whether it's Canva or AI. The world is always changing and they need to solve problems their clients are going to have with these tools."

Her program labs currently include four juniors and eight seniors and students are building skills in the classroom as well as the community. She said they will work with local nonprofits to promote them and share information, while the senior capstone project will be to develop a campaign for a local organization. Students will also learn graphic design, photography and promoting JVS programs. With the latter, they will be assigned to market a different program using a number of communication outlets, including newsletters and podcasts to recruitment videos.

"My motto is 'See Patterns, Ask Better Questions, Design Solutions, and Build Systems,'" she commented. "The juniors are doing camera work and seniors get editing work and are learning the system such as Google Drive, Google Docs and spreadsheets. They are working towards certification in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Animator and Adobe Lightroom and we'll be doing podcasting, working with local professionals and providing internship opportunities for the students."

Decker said the seniors will focus on animation and AI while juniors will hone their talents with graphic media and design, digital design, and video and sound (podcasting).

"I'm really enjoying the different personalities, learning what the students want to do after high school and motivating their interests and talents," she added. "I'm helping them find their interests in different careers. There are many different opportunities and [I'm] helping them find their niche and develop that one thing. I'm very excited to be on that journey with them, educating them, and getting them plugged in to that next step."