In the classroom, students take courses like Government and Media, Broadcast Sales, and Contemporary Film Criticism. They also benefit from guest lectures by industry veterans like director Mark Romanek '81, whose credits range from music videos to the 2002 feature film One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams (see ICQ 2003/1); screenwriter Mike Werb (Face/Off, The Mask); actors Brooke Dillman (Good Morning Miami), Christine Tucci (MDs), and Anthony Clark and Jean Louisa Kelly (Yes, Dear); and production designer Neil Spisak (Spiderman). "Our Issues in the Media class took a trip to see Politically Incorrect," says Matt Schultz '00, a journalism major. "You never get to do something like that in Ithaca!" Hoppes recalls being taken to the set of Friends by Spisak, who pointed out details that might otherwise have gone unnoticed; for example, "the New York street outside of Central Perk [the characters' favorite hangout] has actual concrete and asphalt, because it makes the sounds more authentic," says Hoppes.

Program head Stephen Tropiano '84 and Catherine Fenzel '04

Just living in Los Angeles was a learning experience for most students. For one thing, it may be the only academic program in the world where students are actually encouraged to bring their car. "It's just not what East Coast people think of when they think of a major city," says Krick. "It's so spread out." Carl Hansen '99, a cinema and photography graduate who is currently a location manager for reality shows, expected "glitz and glamour --- [I] was disappointed to discover how dirty Hollywood as a city was. Los Angeles is not a pretty place by any stretch of the imagination." Hoppes was disappointed in the weather --- it rained more than she expected --- but delighted to find the people didn't necessarily live up to their image, either. "You hear all the stereotypes of the entertainment business having such crazy, snarky, back-stabbing, fake personalities, but the people I worked with were very nice and down-to-earth," she says.

Bohn has noticed that communications students who attend the Los Angeles program "come back much more realistic. Students working on TV shows learn that there is very little in the way of nine-to-five hours and that they will often be working on weekends and in the evenings. So if they go back to Los Angeles, it's with eyes wide open as to what they are going to deal with as they look for a full-time position."

The dean estimates that about 60 percent of the program's alumni return to Los Angeles after graduation. Some, like Amy Neiman, take jobs at the place where they interned. For others, the L.A. program experience proves invaluable in landing work. "The professional relationships are still bearing fruit years after graduation," says Hansen.

"The highlight of the program is being able to see the first generation of students who attended . . . carving out careers for themselves," says Tropiano. "Many of them are now serving as internship supervisors themselves. It's also amazing how the number of alums has increased on the West Coast as a direct result of the program."

Even those who don't return to Los Angeles credit the program for helping them make career decisions. "It pretty much confirmed for me that I wanted to be in the advertising world," says Kaplan, who is now an account executive at a promotional advertising company in Cranston, Rhode Island. Warner "got very tired of the traffic" in Los Angeles, but she was well prepared for working in the sports information office at the University of Florida. "I am applying a lot of what I learned out there to this job," she reports.

Krick's internship led to a new focus: digital media. Today he plans interactive projects for an ad agency in Philadelphia. Schultz's L.A. experience led him to completely rethink his career plans. "I went back to Ithaca . . . and instead of making a résumé tape, I started looking around different industries and wondering if my skills would be better used in something else." He is now preparing to enter law school --- with the idea of specializing in communications law.

Stories like these suggest that the L.A. program is doing just what Skip Landen and Tom Bohn had in mind from the beginning. "It is designed to focus, refine, and enhance [the participants'] professional experience and opportunities," says Bohn. "It's a chance to test aspirations and motivation, and to get information and feedback: Is this what you want to do? Is it what you thought it was?" Marks says about a third of her interns drop cinematography as a professional goal, and that's okay: "If you learn that you don't want to be a cinematographer, that's just as important as learning that you do."