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For the first time in
a long time I feel like I have people in my life
that believe in me and think I’m going to
be a great filmmaker. These people are the people
I’ve met through the Los Angeles Urban League
[a WIA program provider].
I was one of the many who grew up poor and without
a pops. My dad was an abusive drug dealer who left
before my 1st birthday. I was raised by my mother
and grandmother.
In high school I only showed up consistently when
I was playing football. I didn’t take school
seriously until my senior year because I helped
set up a bootleg CD operation to make money. The
big let down came in what would be my senior year
when I went to my counselor to see if I was close
to graduation and he told me I was a year behind
on credits. I immediately decided to drop out.
After many arguments with my mom about my quitting
school, I entered the working world doing telemarketing.
I then went into security, and then back to telemarketing.
I started to get good at it, making 10 - 12 sales
a week. I went from making $200 a week to $300.
But every telemarketer hits a cold spell so rather
than go back down the pay scale I’d quit and
find another company that had a higher starting
salary. I realized hopping from telemarketing job
to telemarketing job wasn’t any way to go
thru life.
November 2004 I was flipping through the classifieds
and saw an ad for the Los Angeles Urban League.
Help with job placement and job training was just
what I needed. I went to orientation at the Baldwin
Hills West Adams WorkSource Center and was told
that the Urban League has a program that would be
of better use for me because I was a high school
drop out. After enrolling in the Youth Center’s
WIA program my case manager, Dorothy Smith, opened
my eyes to the options available to me. Besides
job opportunities the Urban League could prepare
me and pay for my GED so that I could stop lying
about my education on job applications. I began
a GED prep course with Valerie Kelsey of the UCLA
Community Based Learning program. She introduced
me to C.J Scott, who helped me with my resume and
interview and job seeking skills. I even signed
up for something called Youth Council that assists
youth in community service and various youth activities.
C.J. arranged paid work experience for me working
part time at the Urban League WorkSource Center
where I met Angela Hill. [She] informed C.J about
New Line Cinema’s mentorship program.
In June I was accepted as a summer intern at New
Line. While at New Line I interned in three separate
departments. By the end of the summer I made such
a good impression I scored an invite to New Line’s
end of the summer company beach party, where I got
to rub elbows with some of the company’s major
players.
Currently I attend Los Angeles City College as a
Cinema major. I’m also helping launch Status
Entertainment (a company run by a friend of mine)
and developing one of my scripts into a short film.
I’m also working as a Personal Assistant on
a short independent film one of my friends from
New Line is making, called The Toy Box.
If you would have told me four years ago when I
dropped out of school that I’d be working
at New Line Cinema weeks after getting my GED, coming
face to face with people like Terrence Howard, Jack
Black, Jose Canseco, Tracy Morgan, and some talking
robot New Line Auditioned for a movie, I’d
have thought you were crazy. After coming to the
Urban League less than a year ago and seeing how
much my life has changed, I now feel I can accomplish
big things in life so long as I have people believing
in me. I can’t say for sure what the future
holds for me, but I think it will be big, and that’s
in large part due to the Los Angeles Urban League. |
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