| Black-gray in color and shaped like a stealth fighter, the speaker phone really was nothing more than a paperweight when not in use. A few deft keystrokes, however, and that phone became a portal into the high-pressure, high-stakes world of entertainment and communications. On the other end of its open line sat the men and women who occupy the executive suites. Megan Hebenstreit sat in front of that phone and listened to two members of the ABC news program Good Morning America analyze her segment pitch. Chris Kosek leaned over the phone and presented his projections for the opening of the Paramount movie Against the Ropes to the company’s executive vice president and general sales manager for domestic distribution. Typically, such discussions affect employment, paychecks, and promotions, and indeed Kosek and Hebenstreit’s “meetings” could impact their career paths . . . But only after they graduate from AU. Last spring the black speaker phone and the high-profile executives it linked students with were instead an integral part of SOC artist in residence Russell Williams’s annual course, Executive Suite. “This is why you took this course,” Williams said to his class as he prepared to open a videoconference with entertainment lawyer Keith Fleer ’64, ’67. “So you could talk to the folks who do this work and make these decisions every day.” The class recipe was simple and often-utilized at universities—alumni speak to students about their career paths and current issues in their business. That’s the Applebee’s steak and potatoes version. By comparison, Executive Suite is a Spago’s dinner followed by a drink at the Rainbow Room with the whole evening emceed with a splash of cool and a heaping of passion by Williams. “We’re in D.C. not Hollywood,” Hebenstreit said. “But we talk to all these people with the video and teleconferencing. It’s really cool, and I’ve been impressed we could do that.” The people Hebenstreit refers to are among the leaders of the fields of entertainment and communications. People like Joy Moore ’72, ’73, manager for grantee relations and media projects in the Annie E. Casey Foundation; Robert Morton ’75, former executive producer of the Late Show with David Letterman and president and CEO of Panamort Television; and Michael Cascio ’73, former executive vice president and general manager of the Animal Planet, now senior vice president for production at the National Geographic Channel. “I didn’t know we had all these alums,” Hebenstreit said. “I really just knew about Goldie Hawn.” Once a week these business leaders met with the Executive Suite via phone, video conference, or in person. Topics in the sessions ranged from costs associated with producing a film, to the role of media in nonprofits, to the why, when, and where of releasing a big budget movie. “Maybe none of you will work on the business side of show,” Williams said. “But by the end of this we want you to have an idea of how it works, so that the day you do walk into an executive office to pitch an idea, you’ll know what they’re going to want to know.” Alumni speakers traditionally talk about that future “day” to which Williams referred, and it normally registers in the minds of students somewhere before getting married and long after spring break plans. In Executive Suite, however, the day to show your stuff to a high-powered industry leader became a weekly occurrence. Each speaker ended their first class by giving the students an assignment and then returned a couple of weeks later to talk about the results. Paramount’s Clark Woods ’78 asked the class to predict how his company’s Meg Ryan movie Against the Ropes would fare on opening weekend. Fleer asked for a “one sheet” for a movie adaptation, and Good Morning America (GMA) weatherman Tony Perkins ’82 and his producer Gary Stein assigned the students to pitch them a GMA segment that would appeal to a young audience with the promise that they would take the best pitches to the show’s executive producer. “Sure I was a little nervous,” Kosek, a sophomore in SPA and SOC, said of his analysis for Woods. “But you get used to it. I think it’s one of those things where you need that actual experience. As much as you know that it’s for a class, in the back of your mind you know who you’re talking to . . . It’s one thing to have them give you a lecture, it’s an entirely different thing to have them give you a project and then evaluate what you’ve done.” Added SOC senior Catherine Gannon: “I have never had a class where I’ve had an alum or someone high up in the world say ‘Here’s a project based on what we do,’ and then to have them give us feedback on our work on it.” That kind of alumni involvement, which supplements the vast experience of the SOC faculty, has been a major priority of Dean Larry Kirkman. Shortly after arriving at AU in 2001, Kirkman formed an alumni-comprised Dean’s Advisory Council and asked for the group’s input regarding, among other things, how to infuse the SOC curriculum with their professional experience. “This course represents our commitment to building substantive relationships with our alumni and bringing their experience and expertise, ideals and ideas into the classroom,” Kirkman said.
That commitment, however, would still be floating in the ether without the positive response of the SOC alumni. “All of the alums we’ve spoken to have been really open to helping students,” Hebenstreit said. Williams, who has won two Academy Awards for his sound work on the movies Glory and Dances with Wolves, is a case in point. The 1974 graduate arrived at AU three years ago after spending two decades on the West Coast. He’s taught video and film and has quickly earned the reputation as a man who leads an exciting, engaging class. “I don’t know too many people who have taken a class with a two-time Academy Award winner,” Kosek said. Williams’s lectures aren’t lessons, but stories of “the biz,” and he’s liable to tell a joke, talk about his work on an Eddie Murphy movie, make a point, and cajole a student all in one breath. His motives for teaching and for the Executive Suite, which he devised, however, are all based in the professional world, and his goal is a running start for his students upon their arrival there. “If we had had some folks from the movie business [when I was here] it would have given more of a realistic idea of what to do when you leave,” Williams said. It’s an idea echoed by many of the Executive Suite participants. “We want to make sure the curriculum reflects what you need to know to make it when you graduate,” Perkins told the class. “That is very important to me. We want to explain what the real world is and what your expectations should be.” Simply talking to people who studied on the AU campus and who are now in the entertainment industry leaves a lasting impression on students. “The number of alumni we see is amazing,” Gannon said. “They’re kind of the shining spot out in the future for us. They show you can make it.” If the success of Executive Suite is any indication, SOC students will have many more alumni success stories to draw upon. “Every time we meet, somebody mentions an AU graduate that we didn’t know about,” Cascio, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, said. “It’s really amazing how many people have gone here. It’s [SOC] the best kept secret around.” ** Russell Williams is teaching Executive Suite this semester. top |
