Two years ago, Natice Rice was a sophomore looking for an internship in the entertainment industry. Sifting through files at the development office she discovered Eric Tannenbaum, a graduate of the class of 1985 and the president of Columbia Tri-Star. A division of Sony Pictures, Columbia Tri-Star is responsible for such television shows as Dawson's Creek, Party of Five, The Nanny, Mad About You, Days of our Lives, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and other popular programs.
Rice, who is graduating this year, is an economics major and a communication media studies (CMS) minor, and found the internship independently. This year CMS made the most out of the connection and secured internships for eight Tufts students.
Cindy Chen, Alexandra Franklin, Josh Friedman, Mike Glassman, Heidi Hertel, James Lubin, Angela Paradise, and Jason Wang will be working in the comedy, drama, and programming departments, as well as working in Tannenbaum's office.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for our students, all of whom will be getting academic credit," said Susan Eisenhauer, assistant director of CMS.
She expressed the value of interning, a major focus of the CMS minor and an interesting addition to any college career. "We encourage our minors to include at least one internship," Eisenhauer said, reporting that, "we have between 50 and 100 students who intern for academic credit." Approximately 25 students, not all of them CMS minors, intern over the summer for academic credit.
"It's a marvelous opportunity," Eisenhauer said of the Columbia internship. She added that while there are a lot of students with communication internships this summer, this is the most in one office. Originally Tannenbaum had offered two positions but Eisenhauer got such a strong student response that she asked him if he could take more students. Every time she called, he agreed to take on more interns. Soon they were spread throughout the company. Eisenhauer credits the success of acquiring so many internships at Columbia to the fact that Tannenbaum is an alumnus.
Sophomore Jason Wang agreed that alums are wonderful resources for students looking for internships. "If we didn't go here we wouldn't be working there," he said.
"I have so much faith in Tufts, now," sophomore Mike Glassman said.
"And the alum," added Wang.
Glassman has taken advantage of Tufts' links to the entertainment world before. Last summer he interned at Dateline NBC with alum Neil Shapiro, the show's producer.
"All I had to do was write a letter," Glassman said. He learned of Shapiro when CMS brought the alum to campus to speak about his career.
Glassman also interned with a local filmmaker who only hires Tufts students. Paradise will be interning at Channel Four this fall through a similar connection.
Rice also noted an additional benefit to working for an alumnus. "It's a nice connection to have with someone," she said. "You have a connection, some common ground. That's a nice thing to have when you go to work for - and learn from - someone."
That initial bond allowed Rice to develop a strong working relationship with Tannenbaum. "I was really lucky to find Eric Tannenbaum," she said. "He's a really great guy. He taught me a lot; I had a wonderful experience there."
Rice said that Tannenbaum, who was a member of the Tufts football team and was involved in drama, has fond memories of Tufts. "He really likes Tufts. He had a good time here," she reported.
Rice was one of two interns at Columbia and worked directly in the president's office. Her job included doing script coverage - TV lingo for reading a script and summarizing it for someone who doesn't have time to read it in its entirety. She also watched the fall pilots, worked briefly in the development office, and attended development meetings.
"I was able to take initiative," Rice said. "And of course there was the stuff you have to do as an intern, but you can learn from everything you do."
When working in the entertainment industry, even the more menial work can be exciting. "I never got coffee," Rice said, "but I got Mexican food for Whoopi Goldberg."
There were fewer famous faces in the files of Columbia, but Rice claimed that doing the grunt work of sorting through them was still part of the learning experience.
"If you take it in stride, you can learn a lot from what you're filing," she said of the typically dreaded task. Through filing, Rice said that she learned how contracts are written, which "helped put the puzzle together."
As an economics major and a CMS minor, the pieces of the puzzle that is television development and production are important to Rice. The internship allowed Rice to combine her major with her minor. Upon returning to Tufts, Rice used her industry experience to bring a new level of professionalism to TUTV, where she served as the station manager. "It all fit together like a puzzle," she said of her experiences at Columbia and TUTV.
"The most important thing about the internship was that it showed me what I like. It introduced me to something I really love. There's no doubt that I learned a lot," Rice concluded about her experience.
"It's an internship where you learn on the job," Rice said. That's exactly what the eight students are hoping to do this summer.
Her internship opened the door for the other eight students. Not all of the eight are CMS minors, but they are all interested in the entertainment industry. The group represents a wide variety of interests and talents.
Lubin, who claims to "make a damn good cup of coffee," is a fan of Saturday Night Live and "I want to do a show like that," he said.
Paradise is thinking about pursuing a career in broadcast news. She will be working in current programming at Columbia. "Between [the internship at Channel Four] and this summer, I should have a pretty good idea of what I want to do," she said.
"I want to put Spielberg out of business and take his place," Glassman said. This summer he will be working in the drama department.
Working in President Tannebaum's office will expose Wang to his area of interest: the business end of television.
Chen, an IR major, hopes that the internship will expose her to the intricacies of the entertainment industry. "I find it really interesting but I don't really know much about it, so I want to see if I like it," she said. Chen will be working with Lubin in comedy.
The other interns will be spread throughout the president's office, programming, and the comedy and drama departments.
The group will all be working together and some will even be living together.
Glassman, Wang, and Lubin, who all know each other from classes and extra-curricular activities, are driving cross-country together and will be living at a fraternity house at UCLA. The arrangements, made by Paradise, were just finalized a few weeks ago.
"We were joking around that we were going to have to live in the car," Paradise said of the last minute plans.
"I tried to convince them to live on the beach," Lubin said. "I thought that would be a romantic notion.'
Paradise and Hertel, best friends, will also be sharing an apartment.
The students are all excited about the opportunity to learn about the television industry and spend the summer in sunny Los Angeles.
Lubin commented that he was most interested in learning the process that goes into making a show. "There's a lot of stuff you don't know when you watch a show," he noted, adding, "I also hope to work on my surfing skill."
Paradise, who will be a senior next year, is also looking beyond the scope of the internship and into her future. "I've never been to California before and I'm thinking in terms of graduate school. This is the best time for me to get out there and see if it's where I want to be."
Rice noted that LA is, besides New York, the only place to be to work in the television industry. She searched for her internship independently because the CMS and Career Center databases focus on the East Coast.
"Career Services needs to try and expand to the West Coast, not only for the entertainment industry, but all industries," she said. "There are a lot of students from western states who want to move back and a lot who've always lived in the north east who want to move west."
No matter where the internship is, the learning experience is invaluable.
According to Eisenhauer, internships allow students a chance to "network with professionals and learn what other skills they need to pick up to be a qualified applicant."
"So many people want to do what we want to do so it's better, so it's better to start now," Wang added. "Plus, it sounds like fun."
