The Academy Gold Rising Internship Program With L.A. Film School

The Academy Gold Rising is one of the most valuable internship experiences for students and recent grads in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Film School has been a higher-education partner with the Academy Gold Rising internship since the program started in 2017. Academy Gold Rising is an entertainment industry internship and mentorship program for students and young professionals from underrepresented communities. The partnership with Academy Gold Rising has led to more than 40 students and graduates participating in the summer internship program over the past 6 years. 

Kevin Bannerman from the Career Development department works closely with students and graduates to help prepare them for their internships with Academy Gold Rising.  He has seen students thrive during their time with the Academy Gold internship and learn invaluable industry experience.

“The program is designed to help students who might not have the kind of connections it takes to meet “A” level Hollywood talent, and it exposes them to all sorts of “real world” working and networking scenarios,” said Kevin Bannerman, New Media Arts manager.

“The Academy Gold Rising program is also very focused on diversity and inclusion and with our very diverse student body, this has been a huge thing for us,” added Bannerman.

The Academy Gold Rising Brings Diversity to the Forefront

In 2022, The Academy Gold Rising selected students from 48 colleges and universities and comprises 82% underrepresented racial/ethnic communities, 59% women, 32% LGBTQ+ and 18% with disability. This internship creates a rare opportunity for our students to meet, network and learn from talent at the highest level while they are still students or recent graduates. These Academy Gold Rising graduates develop an invaluable network, all eager to prove themselves and make it in this industry. Each graduate gets a mentor when they graduate. The mentors can provide guidance, insight and oftentimes employment opportunities that would typically be out of their reach or take years to develop. Our students and recent graduates also get the support of the Academy’s educational branch team during their time with the program. 

“Just to see our students graduate from this program is a thrill; one really sees their accomplishments develop after that.”

Kevin Bannerman

One recent example of success was with Film graduate and military veteran Marcus Farrell. Marcus applied in 2020, but did not get accepted into the program. He applied again in 2021 and did get accepted; Marcus went through the Academy Gold Rising program, was part of the Disney Diversity program and has now been working on Marvel’s SHE-HULK as a VFX Production Assistant, for which he will receive his first onscreen credit.

The Academy Gold Rising 2022 Intern Class

Learn more about The Academy Gold Rising program.