Flyer image by Mark Turner

Outstanding work from the Brooks Institute School of Visual Journalism is being featured now at the Ventura County Arts Council Collegiate Exhibition. The exhibit runs from March 5 through March 31 at the Ventura County Government Center located at 800 South Victoria Blvd in Ventura. (The exhibition is located in the Main Administration Building, top floor of the Atrium Gallery.) The public is invited to a reception scheduled for Thursday, March 18 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

Left to right: Yao Shiguan, Professor & Vice Dean of Teaching, Administration Division; Xiong Ying, Dean of School of Foreign Languages; Dr. Roger Andersen, President, Brooks Institute; Kuang Guozhu, President, Dalian University of Technology Photo Credit: David Litschel

The three visitors from Dalian University of Technology were accompanied by Yuhsun Edward Shih, Ph.D., Director of International Admissions, Colorado Technical University, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The purpose of the visit was to meet with Dr. Roger Andersen and David Litschel, Vice President of Academic Affairs, to discuss ways in which the two institutions could cooperate in the future. Plans are to follow up with another meeting in March.

This  week Mr. Duk Hyung Yoo, President of Seoul Institute of the Arts, and I signed a Memorandum of Agreement on the Establishment of Academic and Artistic Cooperation between our schools. The academic, artistic, and cultural cooperation and exchanges between the two institutions may include:

• Exchange of students
• Exchange of faculty and staff members
• Student internships
• Joint productions (i.e. film, photography, design, etc.) and research projects
• Joint conferences
• Joint cultural programs
• Joint exhibitions, performances and workshops
• Special lecture programs

Both schools have been in preliminary discussions of a possible student documentary project in South Korea during the summer of 2011.

Mr. Yoo and I are excited about the cultural and educational programs that can be developed between our two premier visual arts schools.

Image provided by Jacob Foko

Brooks Institute Visual Journalism Program graduate, Jacob Foko has been selected by the Career College Association (CCA)* to receive a 2009 GREAT Award in recognition of excellence, achievement and talent. The GREAT Award program is designed to recognize recent graduates of the nation’s accredited, private, postsecondary colleges and universities that have excelled academically and demonstrated extraordinary talent in their field. The award recipients are also graduates who had to overcome great odds to achieve his or her educational dreams. Jacob is one of only four GREAT Award recipients selected by the CCA from a very large number of nominations.  When Jacob graduated from the Visual Journalism Program last year, he was selected as the student speaker for his class. Jacob also received the Outstanding Achievement Award, the highest student honor bestowed by Brooks Institute to one of its graduates.” Jacob Foko will receive the GREAT Award at a special awards breakfast to be held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 11. Members of Congress and their staff will be present for the awards ceremony. I will be representing the school and participating in the award ceremony (as well as lobbying on Capitol Hill for two days!).

Jacob’s story is truly inspirational and exemplifies the “passion, vision, and excellence” that is an integral part of the Brooks Institute experience and what lives on in the more than  11,000 ”Brookies” (alumni) located throughout the world.

Four years ago, Jacob Foko came from Cameroon, Africa to the U.S. unable to speak the English language. Yet, unlike many of his native contemporaries, he may have had much more to say.

Like many fellow Brooks students, Jacob’s interest in photography first started in high school. His hobby of taking photos of his classmates quickly evolved into an income-generating vocation.  With this early confidence, Jacob began to pursue this career path more fervently, eventually earning the unofficial title of Cameroon’s first photo journalist.

In 1991, Jacob honed his craft as a staff photo reporter at Cameroon Radio and Television National Television.  A few years later, he met the publisher of Libre Afrique, a liberal international publication that translates as “Free Africa”, where he became a staff photographic reporter. It was during these years, Jacob’s interest in humanitarianism flourished. He then went on to travel and document for Africa Express and Jeune Afrique Economie, headquartered in Paris.

In May of 2003, Jacob arrived in Washington D.C. and began studying English. In July 2005, Jacob left all that was familiar on the East Coast to pursue a new life in California. After much success during his three years at Brooks, Jacob graduated in June 2008 with academic honors in Visual Journalism and was chosen as the student graduation speaker. He was also awarded Brooks Institute’s highest graduation honor: the Award for Special Achievement.

After graduating, Jacob continued to freelance for many of his former employers in Cameroon and France until he stumbled on a unique opportunity that grasped his heart. Global Humanitarian Photojournalists (GHP), a non profit organization, was the brainchild of Jacob Foko. As the founder of the Cameroon Association of Humanitarian Photojournalists based in Cameroon, Africa, it was his deep desire to start a similar organization here in United States and provide humanitarian services globally.

Jacob has taken his documentary, Flux Mothers, on the road to be presented to the cities of Ventura and Ojai, California. He hopes to continue to raise awareness of his project all around the world. For more information on his documentary visit www.globalhp.org.

Jacob is an inspiration to student photojournalists and to the future photographers of the world. He is a warm, genuine-hearted person who has a smile that is contagious to whomever he meets. All of us at Brooks Institute appreciate Jacob as a distinguished graduate who truly gives back to society. Jacob embodies what photojournalism is and should be and is an example to all current and future students.

*The College College Association is a voluntary membership organization of accredited, private postsecondary schools, institutes, colleges and universities that provide career-specific educational programs. CCA has over 1400 members that educate and support almost two million students each year for employment in over 200 occupational fields. These schools and colleges graduate approximately one half of the technically trained workers who enter the United States workforce each year. CCA member institutions cover the full gamut of postsecondary education: from short-term certificate and diploma programs, to two- and four-year associate and baccalaureate degrees to masters and doctoral programs.