User:Collegesmartseries

The "College Smart Series" is a promotional online series for the Houston Public Broadcasting Service Emmy Award-Winning talk show "Living Smart with Patricia Gras," with the mission to help broadcast and media production students from all over the country get a chance to showcase their work and gain experience in creating broadcast style news stories.

History
The series, created by HoustonPBS Television Producer Patricia Gras, DePauw University graduate Christina Rivera, and University of Houston senior Michelle Reed, features man-on-the street type interviews and television news style episodes focusing on lifestyle topics used on "Living Smart with Patricia Gras" with a college twist. The series was created in January 2011 with the intention to help students learn how to work in the television industry and gain experience in all formats of journalism, including videography, editing, producing, reporting, and writing. Each episode is individually produced by one to five students. College Smart Series has featured work by students from the University of Houston, Louisiana State University, Texas A&M, University of Texas at Austin, Savannah College of Art and Design, Emerson College, and DePauw University.

In January 2012, the series started a College Smart Collegiate Video Project where students from all over the country can submit video news packages relevant to Living Smart topics. One story will be chosen each month to be featured on the upcoming College Smart Series website. The students behind the video will also be featured and will be given an opportunity to blog about their experiences. Students can also opt to participate in writing news stories for the website, which will be chosen each month by the producers. The program will be open for submissions on their new website in April 2012.

The series is currently featured on YouTube, Patriciagras.net , and CNN iReport.

In June 2011, the web series was featured in the CLASS newsletter at the University of Houston.