Our Adventist legacy demonstrates a rich relationship with broadcast communications. It is with this in mind that Portland Adventist Academy (PAA) offers a new class in Digital Broadcasting.

Mark Kooy, PAA's digital art instructor, heads up the class, which focuses directly on broadcasting sound and video on the Internet. Students learn to run a newsroom that announces PAA events, news, and spiritual items on downloadable Webcast they can access 24 hours a day on the school Web site. "What's great about this class is that it incorporates all the basics of broadcasting," explains Kooy. "They're learning lighting, green-screen, copy-writing and editing, but we're teaching them how to reach a Web-based audience."

Today's students are already familiar with digital communications. "They do it every day," says Kooy. "They leave messages on "myspace," they "blog," "text" their friends, and upload their music videos onto "YouTube." But we don't want this to be kid stuff," he explains. "Rather, it should be of a professional quality that we can use to advance the school and our beliefs."

"With this new class, PAA can be in the forefront of training our youth to combine their faith with technology," says Steve Vistaunet, North Pacific Union Conference assistant to the president for communication. "This is a great opportunity if we are visionary enough to give our youngest and brightest members an avenue for sharing our church's mission."