Los Angeles-When Joan Adler moved here in the fall of 1976, the Syracuse native had never lived outside of New York and had no California connections. But with dreams of Hollywood success in mind, Adler and a friend hopped in a car and drove across the country anyway.

‘When we came out here,’ said the Syracuse University grad, ‘we were completely on our own.’

More than 30 years later, Adler-director of the recently created Syracuse University in Los Angeles-hopes to help SU students in a similar position.

About 3,000 miles from main campus, located in a sleek downtown L.A. high rise, Adler’s office explodes with Syracuse pride.

SU paraphernalia fills the office to the brim. Signed posters and sports memorabilia line the walls. Ottos of various shapes and sizes litter her desk and bookshelves. An American Girl doll decked in an SU cheerleading outfit smiles from a shelf. Adler often scours eBay and other Web sites to find even more Syracuse mementos.

Adler, like her office, is a comforting presence to SU students, many of whom are a long way from home in a city quite different from what they are used to.

‘L.A., in itself, I found to be a very strange place,’ said SU senior and New Jersey resident Hillary Reitman, who spent the summer interning at Orly Adelson Productions. ‘But the learning experience that I had was absolutely invaluable.’

While the initial goal of SULA, which opened in the fall of 2005, was to work as an outreach branch to more than 12,000 Syracuse alumni who reside in California, Adler’s warmth has turned it into a home base for current Syracuse students, summer interns and recent graduates who relocate to Los Angeles, as well.

Though Adler began the office solo, she is now joined by Regional Director of Development Ellen Beck, a ’79 SU graduate and administrative assistant Rachel Sirak.

Adler’s official title is senior director of principal gifts, which corresponds to the program’s mission to help reconnect with alumni who may have felt disconnected from Syracuse.

‘SU has never been out here before,’ said Adler, former vice president and general manager at Post Group in Hollywood. ‘There were people out here 30, 40, 50 years with no constant contact with the university.’

The center hosts numerous alumni events, where students have the opportunity to speak with deans and professors from SU’s schools and colleges or even men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim.

‘It’s more important here because you’re so far away,’ Adler said of alumni events. ‘And it’s so fun to stay in touch with other Syracuse people.’

But what really excites Adler is helping out the students who find themselves in Los Angeles.

Most are television, radio and film or drama majors, but it is not limited to that.

‘The schools and colleges grads are coming from are as varied as the jobs they are receiving,’ she said.

Adler and the SULA team assist SU transplants in all areas. They help them network with SU alumni and set up events and classes where they can mingle with fellow L.A. newbies. Adler even hosted three SU students in her home this past summer.

‘I think it’s really important to help people get started,’ she said, ‘especially with it being so far from Syracuse.’

In June, SULA worked with the Southern California Orange alumni club to host Soft Landing, where transplants can meet others with SU connections in Los Angeles for the summer or on a permanent basis. There will also be opportunities to network with alumni.

The event features an alumni panel discussion as well as information on how to find housing. Additionally, representatives from SU Alumni Relations and Career Services attended to help students with job hunting.

‘It was very helpful,’ Reitman, who lived with Adler for the summer, said of the event. ‘It could be very comforting for someone who was going to move out there.’

SU senior and Los Angeles native Gavin Jones knows Southern California like the back of his hand, and through events like Soft Landing, SULA helped him meet students new to the area and share tips and secrets about his hometown.

‘It feels good to give back because I’ve been in their shoes,’ said Jones, who said he was timid at first about attending college so far away from home. ‘It’s also been a great way to meet new people moving out here.’

Jones said he likes to help Adler at events, especially since she helped him secure several internships. He worked on a PBS documentary, served as a production assistant for the 79th Academy Awards and spent the summer interning at Laura Ziskin Productions, which produced all three Spider-Man movies.

Adler said she loves when she can help SU students land internships or jobs, but she emphasizes that she simply helps students get in contact with alumni.

‘The students do all the work,’ she said.

SULA also helped to coordinate Sorkin Week, an event sponsored by alumnus Aaron Sorkin, creator of NBC’s ‘The West Wing.’ Sorkin Week brings a small group of drama and film students to Los Angeles during the spring semester to attend television and movie studios, meet with industry professionals and attend workshops on auditioning and performing.

Musical theater graduate Alexis Ostrander attended Sorkin Week during her junior year. The experience helped her to secure a summer internship with Sorkin and business partner Thomas Schlamme’s ShoeMoney Productions. She now works there.

‘I think it’s a marvelous program,’ Ostrander said of SULA. ‘I think Syracuse needs to expand upon it and get teachers out here to teach classes.’

So does Adler.

Along with looking for a permanent location for the SULA office, she said she hopes to develop an academic program, where students can take classes and work internships. She compared it to those already available to SU students in New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as through SU Abroad.

‘Maybe instead of going to Europe, students come to Los Angeles instead,’ Adler said.

Many schools and colleges-such as Boston University, Ithaca College and Duke University, among many others-already have semester programs in Los Angeles.

SU really needs to catch up, Ostrander said, pointing out that students from these schools are getting ‘legs up on jobs’ in the competitive entertainment and communications industries.

Ostrander and Reitman both said SULA helps force SU students out of their safety bubbles without leaving them completely on their own. While Reitman decided Los Angeles simply wasn’t the place for her, Ostrander fell in love.

Either way, both said the experience was extremely important and beneficial.

‘I moved out here because of SULA,’ Ostrander said. ‘Otherwise, I would have gone to New York City like everybody else.’

Published on September 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm