Syracuse University students will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the entertainment industry this fall. A new satellite campus program in Los Angeles will allow students to work with SU alumni that have made names for themselves in the Hollywood spotlight.

Twenty-eight juniors and seniors in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and College of Visual and Performing Arts will attend classes in Los Angeles and meet with people involved in the entertainment industry, said Andrea Asimow, director of The LA Semester.

Asimow said that because of SU’s geography, students do not get the same advantages as they would in the Hollywood setting the new program will provide.

‘These students will have the opportunity to be taught by working professionals in the industry where that industry flourishes,’ she said.

The LA Semester is developed from two programs offered to television, radio and film majors in Newhouse, students in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries and film majors in VPA. Both programs acted as predecessors to the new program, said Joan Adler, director of the SU Los Angeles center.

Students have had the opportunity to participate in Los Angeles-based programs before with SU, including the annual Los Angeles Industry Seminar, a weeklong program for television, radio and film students who would meet with SU alumni in the television and film business. The Sorkin in LA Learning Practicum, inspired by Aaron Sorkin, an SU alumnus and writer, creator and producer of ‘The West Wing,’ was established in 2006 for film students in VPA to read with talent agents and Hollywood actors to hone their skills.

The LA Semester will act as a 20-hour-per-week internship to accommodate each student’s interests. In addition to the internship, students will take the rest of their course-required classes online during their stay, Asimow said.

SU and Southern California alumni contributed aid to the startup of the program, Asimow said. They will also provide opportunities for students throughout the semester, including some internships and public forums.

A wide range of internships will be available to students, Asimow said, including the opportunity to shadow writers from current reality and international shows, as well as at major production studios such as Universal Studios and Lifetime Movie Network. Other internships will be located in music video production studios and talent agencies, among other places.

Though the program is only offered to Newhouse and VPA students right now, Asimow and Adler said that they hope to eventually open the program to all of the schools and colleges within SU. Asimow said she hopes the LA Semester will span more than just the entertainment industry.

‘We are trying to establish an SU campus at which students can continue their education in areas other than entertainment,’ she said. ‘This is really the beginning of a very important extension – to be able to offer students class in LA where those classes make sense to be taught.’

smtracey@syr.edu

Published on May 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm