By: Michael Valentino

/ Hooray for Hollywood… La La Land… Party in the USA… I can go on! They’ve all been a part of my pop culture lexicon, and yet I’ve never been to the one place I always dreamed of going. 

Nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to how excited I am to finally get the chance to head west to Los Angeles. I mean, it’s inevitable that I will one day (very soon) be making the move, so this is a really important step in that direction. Also, naturally, I have always wanted to go and check out all the sights, being a pop culture fanatic, but I never had a push to… that is, until now.  

Hofstra in L.A. is something that has been on my college bucket list since I first started at the school and being accepted into this program means the absolute world. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I intend to fully take advantage.

I feel like I have really gotten a grasp of the New York entertainment scene, as I am just now finishing my eighth internship. I have been all over the place, trying to learn as much as possible about what exactly makes great content. My first experiences working in entertainment began in publicity, where I interned at both Atlantic Records and Fox Searchlight Pictures. I wanted to understand how to effectively promote projects and how to successfully develop talent. Working in both music and film gave me a great foundation for the industry as a whole, and really prepared me to make the leap into production.  

I spent some time at Viacom as a talent and branded content intern, where I gained valuable experience helping to create targeted content for companies and learned how to utilize internet influencers in strategic campaigns. After becoming well-rounded and versatile in the industry, I was able to make the move to late night television at NBC, first as a music intern at “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and most recently as the very first-ever talent intern at “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”  

These experiences have truly allowed me to achieve many of my dreams and have laid the perfect groundwork for what I hope to be a successful career as a producer and talk show host.  

New York has been good to me, but I am ready to graduate to where entertainment truly strives, and that’s California. I cannot wait for this opportunity, and am so grateful to Professor Morosoff, Dr. Gershon and Dean Marlowe for everything.

The countdown begins now!  See you soon, Cali!