Montana State University Bozeman - Montanan Yearbook (Bozeman, MT)

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30 • Students Gain Stage Experience Music 307-Opera Workshop is a unique course at Montana State. Taught by Music Professor Fred Schoepflin. the workshop is a chance for music students to gather valuable experience in stage productions. A student who enrolls in the Opera Workshop can learn various skills including makeup, lighting, directing. etc.. The culmination of the workshop is the actual production of an opera, late in Winter Quarter or early Spring Quarter. In 1980. The Pirates of Penzance was presented. Totally student-run. this musical comedy by Gilbert and Sullivan was a campus- wide success. Professor Schoepflin, although guiding the progress of the production. participated very little in the actual show. After casting the opera. Schoepflin became only an observer of the complicated process involved in producing a musical production. The learning experience of Music 307 is aimed at helping the students teach theatre and musical production techniques when they graduate. This would range from high school plays to community theatrical productions. (Photos by Vance)

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Internships Offer Experience A number of internship programs have existed at MSU. but just this year a program was established to organize the process. The program, entitled Co-operative Education, is different from the other internship programs in that working experience is intergrated with the courses that a student is taking at the time, rather than after a student has completed nearly all of the required course work. This means that the program deals primarily with 3rd quarter sophomores and 1st quarter juniors. Occasionaly a freshman goes through, and a number of seniors participate; the program is not exclusively developed for sophomores and juniors. The program has grown out of efforts to enable college students to test their career goals and dreams during practical work experience. Also, the program was developed to insure a close and worthwhile relationship between the University and business. A one-year renewable grant from the U.S. Office of Education for $150,000 boosted the CO-OP education programs at the University. The centralization of the program is designed to do three things, said the project's director, Ron Harris; initiate cooperative education programs in MSU's schools, colleges. and departments where they do not currently exist, expand opportunities for cooperative educe on where programs already exist, and strengthen both new and exist ng programs. Through this co-op program, a student is placed with a sponsc organization similar to the type he she hopes to work in after completion of a college program. The student is assigned tasks of a responsible nature which contribute to the overall objectives of the sponsoring organization. Along with hi$ work experience, the student is involved in an academic study of various facets of the sponsoring organization. under the guidance of 'he University faculty, during which me personal, professional and organ za-tional characteristics of the se ect-ed career field are closely examined. Most of the sponsor-comperes are located outside of Bozeman. The program has a part-time coordinator in Billings, and hoped to have one soon in Great Falls. Pc ei-pating firms include the Denver a department store, various CPA firms, banks, and Exxon in Billings Approximately 50 business students went through the prog-am this year; Harris said he hopes at number to double by next year