Ilene Gould, a junior in Media and Information, spent the summer working at mOcean, a trailer house in Burbank, California, as their TV Steaming Intern.
Gould reached out to a retired Michigan State professor in order to connect with CEO and Spartan Alumnus Craig Murray. From there, Murray connected Gould with other Spartans at mOcean to help her along the application recruiting process.
“Spartans are all over Hollywood; and they all want to help and give back to the University,” Gould said.
Something that stood out to Gould was how much mOcean cared about her success in the program. They organized shadowing rotations to allow each intern to experience different departments such as animation, editorial and print. She also attended “lunch and learns” once a week, where she had the chance to interact with employees from different areas of the company.
Aside from the learning experiences, Gould was given valuable hands-on work at mOcean. One of her favorite experiences involved working with producers and creative coordinators to write scripts, one of which was even picked to be in a pitch deck for Netflix. Gould also had the opportunity to go to a pitch at Facebook with mOcean. She made the most of her time by networking with other Spartans in L.A., such as Geoff Johns from DC Comics.
At the end of the summer, the interns were tasked with creating a project that encompassed their time at mOcean. Gould collaborated with her coworkers to write, produce and act in a short film, a "mockumentary" called “the interns”. This humorous spin-off of "The Office" explained why the interns should be hired in as full-time employees.
Gould’s summer found her in a fast-paced, real-world environment where she gained valuable experience to take her far.
“The environment at mOcean was amazing," said Gould. "It was just filled with friendly people who wanted me to learn and grow as a storyteller.”