Media professionals introduce students to careers

A panel of professionals invited by the Media Arts Program introduced students and parents to careers in media in the McAfee Center on Oct. 27.

While speakers emphasized that the roads to their jobs were not easy, they felt the hard work worthwhile and encouraged students to follow their interests.

Parents of students in MAP invited Rob Koo, an animator and story artist at DreamWorks Animation; Jaymee Sire, a reporter for “SportsNet Central”; the mother-daughter team of Susan O’Connor-Fraser and Regan Eymann, producers at their family company Tam Communications; and Geoffrey Thomas, a current curator and designer at the San Jose Tech Museum.

Scott Budman, a reporter and anchor for NBC Bay Area, hosted the discussion. He started the program by asking each speaker to describe their jobs.

Koo showed the audience a snippet of the story board for “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” and O’Connor=Fraser and Eymann played parts of their series “Coast Guard” and a program about a man who loved cemeteries. Thomas displayed exhibits from the Tech Museum, including a scale that tweets a person’s weight to his friends, robotic arms and furry spiders that allow people to overcome arachnophobia.

According to the speakers, finding what their audiences want is not always easy.

“You always have to have a crystal ball to say, ‘This is going to work next season for you,’” Eymann said. “[But] sometimes it’s not right. Sometimes we have to go back to the drawing board.”

A few of the speakers mentioned that they developed their interests in their jobs in high school.

“I was very involved in theatre; we actually had a nice theatre,” Sire said. “Theatre and newspaper and yearbook: I think all those things and [working at a station] in high school helped prepare me to make sure that was what I wanted to do.”

Budman also had the speakers describe the best parts of their jobs.

“The biggest difference is I work with people who love what they do,” Koo said.

For Eymann, it was being able to see her commercials on TV at home with her children.

“It’s just really exciting to see the fruits of your labor, and for your kids to be able to say, ‘Oh, my grandparent or my mom did that,’” she said.

Parents were able to find the speakers through personal connections and references.

“The parents of the MAP students all contributed in making [the presentation] happen,” Joanne Makeever, organizer and mother of senior Derek Makeever, said. “The parents really want the program to be successful.”

Seniors Jocelyn Takahashi, Megan Yen and Antara Rao, who make up the MAP student leadership for the speaker series, helped coordinate the student volunteers and provided a great deal of help to the parents.

About half of the McAfee Center was filled with students and parents. However, the turnout wasn’t as large as the turnout at last year’s Comedy Sportz was, Makeever said.

The MAP Boosters organization is hoping to raise money for equipment for students’ projects. The parents are not arranging as many speaker events as they did last year, but still plan to do Comedy Sportz and SMASHN, the annual awards night for all the MAP students.

“We’re just here to really support the students and the teachers in their ability to do this program successfully,” Makeever said.