Welcome to a 13-part special series for Alumni Live: The Podcast.

These are conversations with Grand Valley State University film and

video students, faculty, and alumni about the film and video major.

And of course that, you know, family of support doesn't end when you graduate.

The Grand Valley Film Alumni Association is ready to pick you

up and help you out in your career.

So we're going to have that professor, Suzanne Zack, come on and talk

to us about what those alumni do.

Hello.

My name is Suzanne Zack and I teach with the Grand Valley film and video major.

For the past few years, I've had the privilege of working with the

Film and Video Alumni Chapter.

This is a dedicated group of alums who are committed to helping

students and alums build their community and build their careers.

I want to tell you about a couple of their more recent initiatives.

In response to the pandemic, the chapter created Alumni Live.

It's a streaming program that students and alums can watch live and ask questions,

or they can watch later at their own time.

The idea is to talk with alums about their areas of expertise.

So there's conversations with topics such as getting work as a production assistant,

or production safety during COVID, or how do you make the move to LA, or what's

it like to work in the game industry?

These are all conversations and advice that are coming from alums

who are working in the industry.

One of the greatest things that the alumni chapter can do is to provide

a connection between alumni and students and to help provide mentoring.

So they created this book called "What can you do with a film and video degree?"

The book shows a range of careers that graduates can pursue.

On each page, there's a profile of an alum who's working in that career.

It shows how they gained that position, what they value about it, and advice

that they have for students who want to pursue that career path.

The alumni chapter has also hosted reunions all across the country and they

invite current students to join them.

They've hosted reunions in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and

they're hoping to expand to other cities.

These are very fun events and it's wonderful to see alumni from different

years get to meet each other.

And students who attend value the opportunity to talk with

alumni about their work.

Another initiative is called Location Scout Your Career.

During spring break, before the pandemic alumni invited students out

to either LA or New York City for a gathering where students met with

alumni who are working in those cities.

And then throughout the week of spring break, alumni invited students into

their workplaces so students could find out what it's like to work at

different companies and organizations.

As it says in the alumni profile book, the Film and Video Chapter is an active

and robust network with a willingness to reach back when you reach out.

In addition to the education that Grand Valley offers, students become

part of a community, a professional community that has a culture

of helping each other succeed.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Alumni Live: The Podcast special

series about the film and video major.

Be sure to listen to the next episode in the series and subscribe to our

podcast to hear even more from our alumni as they talk about their work

in different parts of the industry.

Check out Alumni Live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more

conversations and networking.

Let us know what topics you want to hear our alumni talk about.

The Grand Valley State University Film and Video Alumni Network is here for you.

And we're glad that you're here.

Thank you for listening.