Students interested in learning about and entering the entertainment industry now will have a unique opportunity to prepare for their careers at Bradley University.
Bradley will offer the “Hollywood Semester,” an intense, residential semester-long program in Los Angeles, California, starting in the spring semester of 2012. The program will provide a combination of internships with well-known companies, academic courses, and guest lectures by prominent industry experts.
“This is an exciting initiative that will give Bradley students the skills and contacts to help them develop a career in entertainment,” said Dr. Jeffery Huberman, Dean of the Slane College of Communications & Fine Arts. “Students will translate theory into reality through this program and come away well-versed on how the entertainment industry operates and with a professional network established.”
Courses focus on the business, operational and creative components of the entertainment industry and are taught by accomplished professionals with extensive experience; visits to major Hollywood studios and production houses are an essential part of the curriculum.
Another key component for students will be participation in an internship course in a wide range of areas, including production, post-production, creative, screenwriting, casting, acting, public relations, advertising, and more.
The “Hollywood Semester” will be conducted at The University of Texas at Austin’s West Coast hub, the UTLA Center in Burbank. A limited number of students will be admitted to the Bradley program each semester. To be eligible, students must be junior or senior level, have a grade point average of 2.5 or better, and have completed a prerequisite course. Interested students should contact the office of the associate dean of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at 309-677-2368.
The Hollywood Semester will expand Bradley’s commitment to providing students residential experiences in communication and fine arts professions. Since 1988, short-term expedition classes in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Chicago have been offered to Bradley University students to explore the entertainment, sports, and communication fields.
The Slane College annually hosts a networking event in Los Angeles for students and the more than 350 alumni working in those industries. The Slane College’s alumni are recipients of major international honors including 45 Emmy Awards, 3 Academy Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. Among Bradley’s notable alumni are consumer advocate David Horowitz; Charley Steiner, play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers; Academy Award winner Tami Lane; Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Renee Byer; Lisa Helfrich Jackson, co-executive producer of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Everybody Loves Raymond; and Jim Tanker, who has directed Big Brother and the Academy Award broadcasts.