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Ping, who has experience in mixing and production on set at Montclair, was working at his internship with Cinema Devices, a film engineering company, when a co-worker mentioned he needed a sound mixer for the Grammys\u2019 red carpet. \u201cI spent three days doing different red carpet events, recording the audio for the handheld mic interviews for the Recording Academy,\u201d Ping says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the type of experience becoming more common for the students taking part in the program.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see that people have now heard of Montclair State University. That\u2019s opening doors for us,\u201d Strudler says.<\/p>\n
Alejandro Londono, a junior\u00a0Film and Television major,\u00a0will complete two internships over the course of the semester: one in sports media at Stadium Rant and the other as a television reviewer for\u00a0an online entertainment magazine. \u201cTo be able to live out here and be in the middle of the industry at such a young age is a huge privilege,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Last fall, Madison\u00a0Westenhiser, a\u00a0Film and Television major, was offered a job to continue her internship remotely when she left Los Angeles. She\u2019s an assistant producer with\u00a0Make That Paper Podcast, a show featuring interviews with artists talking about the odd jobs, side hustles and alternative income streams they find to help them pursue their artistic careers.\u00a0\u201cI do a lot of the show\u2019s social media posts, along with newsletters, and now even edit some of the scripts,\u201d Westenhiser says.<\/p>\n
The podcast\u2019s co-host is\u00a0Jaime Parker Stickle, a screenwriter hired by Montclair to run its Semester in LA program.\u00a0She teaches a class on the Los Angeles media industry, where she draws on her own connections to bring in guest speakers \u2013\u00a0cinematographers, showrunners, casting agents and writers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cAll people working in the industry who have held various positions leading up to who they are now,\u201d Stickle says.<\/p>\n
Montclair alumni help the students dream big. Michael Price \u201981 (BA in Speech and Theatre), executive producer of\u00a0The Simpsons<\/i>; Marvel Studios\u2019 Adam Derengowski \u201919 (BFA in Filmmaking), production coordinator; Sean Aronold \u201921 (BFA in Filmmaking), production assistant; and\u00a0Rebekka Johnson \u201901 (BFA in Theatre),\u00a0an actress on the Netflix series\u00a0Glow<\/i>, have all shared their personal stories of what it takes to make it in the\u00a0Hollywood entertainment scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single day you are learning about a new person and what their life was like and what obstacles they had that you may have and can figure out how to overcome,\u201d Westenhiser says.<\/p>\n Students selected for the program stay on track to graduate by taking Montclair courses online while in LA. The University shares classroom space and residential housing with other East Coast schools, providing opportunities for all the students to get to know one another. They spend time together, whether hiking or touring LA, and in doing so are making connections with people who could very well be their collaborators after they graduate, whether in LA, New York or another city shaping the entertainment landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cComing out here and realizing that I\u2019m a Montclair student in the same league with NYU or Ithaca, that we\u2019re now up to that level, if not surpassing, is a super cool feeling,\u201d says Ping.<\/p>\n Experiencing California in itself has been an adventure. \u201cI was definitely missing Jersey but the weather and the views are unbeatable,\u201d says Ahmad Muheisen, who took part in the program last fall and will graduate in May with a degree in Sports Communication. \u201cAnd then, all the connections we gained, all the experience we received. It was like a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/responsive-media\/cache\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/Alejandro-Londono-SemesterLA2.jpeg.3.2x.generic.jpg\")