A student is planning to start a club and non-profit organization for aerial photography in the Oklahoma City area.
Jacob Black, music education junior, said he grew up with a major interest in drone photography and other science activities but noticed a lack of opportunities for pursuing those interests.
“There’s a lack of science activities around the metro area. There are two robotics teams, but that’s about it. I remember when I was going to high school about 15 minutes north of here, there were activities that existed, but no over-arching influence from an organization or university funding it,” Black said.
Black said his own interest in unmanned aerial vehicles started when the community exploded into the mainstream in the early 2000’s.
“I started on prop planes and eventually moved onto drones. Recently, I’ve even been dabbling in cars, but those [drones] are my main focus for this project.” Black said.
Black said he isn’t sure yet whether he wants the group he is forming to work primarily as a club, a non-profit or both.
“The main focus will be to provide education but also provide a service to the community. It can’t just be a club. It’s too expensive of a craft to just do through the university,” Black said. “There are many ways to cut down on the price of those things, but you need a plan. There are many things that can be accomplished with a little organization.”
He said the function of the group will be to serve children in the community, so securing the funds to bank-roll the expensive equipment will be a priority.
“For this to be useful, I really want to have these kids interact with the companies that could put them to use. Whether that be surveys or some kind of propagation of arts, media creation is what a lot of these places are looking for. That was the first focus I had,” Black said.
Black said the eventual goal is to spark interest in organizations that would find his program worthwhile for students across a large range of ages. He said he wants to ignite a passion for science in young people and sees aerial photography as the best way to do that.
“This project needs a purpose. It needs to be driven. I don’t yet know what angle would be best, so the first focus would be to build something that young people would be able to get involved with that wouldn’t take a lot of money. I am looking to target groups like Boy Scouts and Boys and Girls Club specifically,” Black said.
Black said his first priority is finding interested students and faculty members. He said he hopes to create an infrastructure that would make the large amount of work needed to establish a non-profit education program less strenuous.
“The more people who become interested in this project, the easier it will be to organize. The eventual goal will be as soon as someone joins, they can pick something to research and work on, and it wouldn’t take much work to bring us all together and put that information to form a curriculum,” Black said.
Black said there are no finite plans yet for forming the group, but he does intend to get the ball rolling soon to start building interest.
“The first thing I am planning to do is start a naming contest, post that online and maybe give away a couple prizes. From there, if a few people are interested, we can definitely have a meeting. I’m just not sure who to talk to yet to work out the logistics,” Black said.
Black said he has high hopes for the group and sees his club coming together fairly soon, depending on how many people become involved.
“If a couple people got together and said they were interested, it wouldn’t even take until the end of semester to get this project on its feet. That will make it easier to get money together and take action.” Black said.
Jason Gonzalez-Larsen, music theater/vocal performance junior, said he is happy to see groups like this continuing to develop.
“Clubs and other groups being formed on campus is a sign of students becoming involved with their interests outside of just their major. I think it’s a great thing,” Gonzalez-Larsen said.
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