April 28, 2015
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Northern Oklahoma College and Piyush and Lisa Patel/PL Studios are among 27 higher education and business partnerships recognized by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education as “innovative collaborations that further the education of Oklahoma’s workforce.”
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The partnership received the OSRHE Business Partnership Excellence Award at a recent awards luncheon held in the Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City.
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For more than 16 years, NOC and Piyush and Lisa Patel/PL Studios have enjoyed a partnership centered on higher education as well as economic development. In 1998 Piyush Patel started the Multimedia and Digital Communications Program at Northern as an animation and web authoring program.
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By 2000, MDCP had become the world’s largest media 100 iFinish laboratory, and Northern hired two NOC graduates to help teach the 3D and Web classes. A third instructor was hired in 2001. MDCP was morphed into a sixteen-week intense training program, which culminated in the Associate in Applied Science degree program.
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In 2004, the Patels moved their business to an incubator program in Oklahoma City while the program changed to Digital Media Institute, a two-year curriculum with a 2+2 articulation transfer agreement with Cameron University.
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PL Studios, which has serviced more than 1.2 million clients, has been an innovator and leader in creating video-based training for emerging digital artists across the globe. It has placed interns and employed a number of NOC DMI graduates.
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DMI created an Advisory Board as a means of constant improvement of the DMI curriculum while keeping up with the demands of the competitive and fast-paced creative industry. In addition, the establishment of the Piyush and Lisa Patel DMI Scholarship Fund in 2013 will provide future students with scholarship assistance while completing the DMI program at Northern.
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“Oklahoma’s colleges and universities drive economic advancement, collaborating with business and industry partners to link academic programs directly to employment needs in high-demand areas,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. “Through these partnerships, students engage in hands-on career-related experiences and are better prepared for the workforce.”
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BUSINESS PARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARD
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Northern Oklahoma College and PL Studios of Oklahoma City show off the Business Partner Excellence Award given by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.at an awards luncheon in Oklahoma City. In front are Lisa and Piyush Patel, owners of PL Studios. In back (l-r) are NOC Board of Regents Chair Jeff Cowan, NOC President Dr. Cheryl Evans, Digital Media Institute Director Brad Matson, Vice President for Development and College Relations Sheri Snyder and Fine Arts Division Chair Dineo Heilmann. The award is designed to highlight successful partnerships between institutions of higher learning and businesses and to further cultivate the higher learning environment through State Regents’ Economic Development Grants.
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