The SCAD College Visit Is Turning Heads Towards Futures In Cinema And Dramatic Arts

Caption: Junior Luke Meier, 7th grader Seth Spinola, and Junior Ethan Spinola look through a SCAD brochure together. [by Dr. Cristina Meier]

By Grace Meier

The 2025 SCAD College visit that happened on October 30 at PACA’s auditorium brought students and teachers together to take part in the SCAD workshop. Different from most of the college visits at PACA, this was not a mandatory event for all high school students. Another difference was that the visit included a special hands-on, actors workshop and not just a presentation of facts about the university.

Mr. Gui Moises helped organise the visit in Mrs. Mindy Swisher’s absence with the two representatives from SCAD university who were visiting the school. SCAD, which stands for Savannah College of Art and Design, is known for being an American college specifically focused on students who wish to have a creative career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9TCoNPyaUY

Although this particular visit was optional for high school students to attend, there was a high turnout among those in their sixth and seventh period classes. Some teachers brought their entire class to attend the event.

They began the visit with a presentation of the school and a description of the two campuses that are located in the state of Georgia in the United States. As explained by the representatives, this area of the United States is the new hub for major movie production in the United States. After the university presentation, one of the representatives provided a demonstration of what a class at SCAD might be like.

He called on many different students to do a small demonstration of a type of acting exercise with him called “Mirrors.” Then he asked the whole audience to find a partner and do that exercise on their own.

This helped the students get a feel for acting classes at the university and sparked a curiosity about the type of study that they might not have had before. According to the SCAD website, SCAD film and television students have opportunities to work on real sets or join student-produced shows and short films all during the time they are students at this university.

Guilherme Moises said, “It’s important for students to get to know what the university is like, to see the campus and the programs. It affects the students in a way to decide if that’s what they want to do or not.”

He also thinks it is important for students who are already interested in the study, to know that the things they are getting taught at the university are relevant to their practice. They can know if they are getting valuable information from their teachers especially.

Guilherme noted that the professional experience the SCAD teachers have in film and production is something they can pass along to their students in class.

“The teacher that was here, he filmed in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman,’ the last ‘Batman: The Dark Knight,’” Guilherme said, “he was at SCAD. So they have people who have very good experience in movie sets.”

After letting the whole audience participate in a demonstration, the representative talked about the specific opportunities provided at SCAD for filming and directing.

This led to a final demonstration with three students. One playing the part of the director, one playing the part of a character named Tom. And one playing the part of the cashier.

Luke Meier was the one playing Tom, Carolina Alves played the cashier, and Michelle Chang played the director.

Meier remarked on how he really enjoyed playing a part in the skit that was chosen and just going through the whole experience in general.

“I really enjoyed the skit they ended up doing because it really showed me what SCAD is like,” said Meier, “and kind of gave me a taste of what their classes must be like learning how to act and be an actor.”

The whole experience was very interesting and fulfilling for all of the students and teachers that participated in the SCAD university demonstration visit of 2025.

To find out more about SCAD university, look at the link below:

https://www.scad.edu/locations