Scott Neily: Bringing industry experience to the classroom
Neily is a jack-of-all-trades creative, pulling on his real-world experience to inform his lessons.
Photo c/o Martin Maunder
This article originally appeared in NSCC’s NOW Newsletter.
In 1999, when Scott Neily agreed to teach a web design course at NSCC, he didn’t expect to stick around longer than the course’s seven-week tenure. Today, he still teaches at NSCC, instructing design and digital art courses to public relations and applied media and communication arts students.
As one of the many auxiliary faculty members NSCC employs, Neily brings his real-world experience to the college. Like the rest of NSCC’s 700 faculty, these staff members are essential, “bringing to the classroom their industry experience and offering education and training that readies our students for the workforce,” says NSCC president Don Bureaux.
Neily is a jack-of-all-trades creative. Outside of NSCC, he works at local animation studio Cartoon Conrad Productions. Officially, he’s the studio’s IT manager, but wears many hats.
“I’ve done video editing, I’ve done sound effects editing, I’ve done graphic design,” says Neily. If it’s creative or involves a computer, he’s probably done it.
Additionally, he’s developed and sold film and television projects of his own, working with talent such as Greg Nicotero — executive producer of “The Walking Dead.”
At NSCC, Neily uses his industry experience to prepare students for the challenges they’ll face in their careers. “I tend to focus on things that are actually practical,” he says.
Neily says his favourite part of teaching is “when you see that lightbulb come on,” and students grasp a complicated concept. “If you teach the foundations and the core essentials of a concept first, they can think independently and adapt.”