MIDDLEBORO —  An upcoming program hopes to attract students ready for their close-ups.

This summer, local community TV channel Middleboro Community Cable Access Media is hosting its first media club for high school and college students of all experience levels who want to learn or sharpen their skills behind or in front of the camera.

Participants will be able to decide which mediums to use and which roles to serve. Options include video, podcasting, show production, and video and audio editing.

The program is free for all participants and will take place weekly at 3 p.m. on Mondays starting June 19 at the channel’s studio, 1 South Main St. The public access channel and the summer program are funded by a percentage of Middleboro cable subscribers’ monthly bill payments.

Cable Access Director Karen Foye, who has decades of experience working for Comcast and Middleboro’s cable access channel, will direct the program and teach club members how to operate the equipment.

“I really want to get [participants] excited about creating something for the community and for themselves that keeps them wanting to come back and have this outlet,” Foye said. She added that she spoke with nearby towns’ public access station directors for ideas on how young adults can contribute to the channel’s programming.

For the media lab, Foye says she will teach the technological skills while the lab participants will come up with a project and direct it themselves.

Part of Foye’s inspiration to start the program is the popularity of Middleboro High School’s media club, which has a waiting list because of the high demand to join. Foye said she spoke with the video production program teacher at the high school, who supported the idea.

The lab will be able to make use of the main studio with high windows that look out onto Main Street, as well as editing bays, the production studio, and a brand-new podcast recording studio.

Foye also sees the summer program as a way to develop future access users, who are a group of residents who learn to use Middleboro Community Cable Access Media equipment and get paid to record meetings or town events.

The summer media lab “gives the kids somewhere else if they want to do something outside of school and still keep their talents up,” Foye said. 

And if a club member has to miss an occasional week, that is not a problem: “It’s not school,” Foye said.