<p>My choir director wants me to learn how to work the sound in the auditorium because the people that have been doing it are seniors. I’m not sure if I want to. It takes up a lot of time, especially during the play and musical (3-4 hour practices everyday for like 12 weeks). I’m not sure if I want to commit to that. The only thing is that I love computers and technology (especially fixing them) and I want to be a computer engineer when I grow up. Will this help me at all for the future, and will it be a plus to college that I’m doing something technology related and I want to go into computer engineering? Please help! He gave me really short notice, because they train us tomorrow.</p>
<p>Well, take the training anyway. It never hurts to know how to do something, and let him know you are ambivalent about the time commitment.</p>
<p>I agree that it never hurts to know how to do something, but I think he’s looking for people to commit to it for sure. I’m thinking about asking him if I can try it out to see if I like it before I commit for the rest of my high school years.</p>
<p>Good plan…</p>
<p>Take the training, and encourage others to join you. Maybe someone else will take a liking to it.</p>
<p>Some schools offer payment for that kind of AV work. You could try asking if the situation feels right.</p>
<p>Edit: And I’d double check the time commitment. Usually for play/musical they don’t use mics/sound equipment until the last month or two.</p>
<p>MizzBee- The meeting tomorrow is open to everyone who’s interested, and I know some people that are going, so I’m not the only one who will be there. I am the only one who the choir director asked though, so I think he’s expecting me to do it.</p>
<p>luisarose- My sister is stage manager and also does lighting, and she doesn’t get paid so I know that I won’t get paid either. It would be kind of nice though! And I will double-check the time, I hope that you’re right!</p>
<p>Since your sister is stage manager and the lighting designer, the teacher probably thinks that you will be as responsible as she has been. I doubt you’ll get paid if she hasn’t been, however this is a useful skill set that can earn you money down the line. Sound is very challenging to get right, and not everyone who thinks they want to learn how to do it is successful at mastering the skills needed.</p>
<p>All that said, you know what tech is like from watching your sister. If you don’t want to be doing that for every concert, assembly, and theatre production at your HS (or for whatever number you would be responsible for), and you’d rather participate in a different EC, that is fine too. It really is OK to tell the teacher thanks but no thanks.</p>
<p>This is a useful skill to know, and you may be able to get work doing sound for community theater or something, which WOULD pay.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you have better things to do with your time…</p>
<p>Yes, it will definitely look good on your resume if you want to apply to computer science programs in college. It shows that you took advantage of one of the few opportunities available to HS students to apply technical skills in a working environment. Engineering recruiters understand that HS kids won’t be doing actual engineering EC’s, so this is the closest you can come to showing your commitment to engineering/tech.</p>
<p>As a parent of a theater kid and a tech theater kid, I can assure you that sound director and running the sound board will take a lot of time. As for the sound portion, you’ve got to be there for every show; tech week which is the week before show opens which often take 5-8 hour rehearsals every night; before that are the cast plus sound and light rehearsals which run for about 2 weeks plus weekends. So pretty heavy time commitment for 3 weeks before show opens. Prior to that, many schools additionally want the sound and lighting people to help with set building etc, but maybe ur school is different. Actually, your sister would know exact time commitments as stage manager.</p>
<p>That being said, some kids really love the camaraderie of putting on productions. My kids’ SAT2 r always right in the middle of the spring musical run, so SAT2 studying becomes minimal. I would only commit to 1 year and say that you would be willing to train the next kid. If u love it, then stay. I don’t think that it helps you with getting into computer eng major any more than other ECs. You should only stick with it if you love it. If u love computers, take a Java programming class instead. Or assemble a kit computer.</p>