LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2023 Summer Internship Program in Hollywood for media arts college students nationwide. The program offers approximately 50 paid, eight-week internships at top entertainment production companies. Online applications are currently being accepted through Jan. 19, 2023, at 5 p.m. (PST) at TelevisionAcademy.com/Internships.

The prestigious internship program gives students in-depth and hands-on professional experience working in a variety of television careers and professions at prominent Hollywood studios and production facilities. Internship categories include–but are not limited to–animation, cinematography, program development, directing, editing, interactive media, news and writing.

The program and its extraordinary opportunities are offered for undergraduate and graduate college/university media arts students for the summer of 2023. Internships may be in-person, hybrid or remote–depending upon the opportunity.

Finalists for these coveted opportunities are selected by members of the Television Academy; final selections are made by participating host companies. The program is designed to train, inspire and open doors for diverse and highly motivated students who might not otherwise have access to the industry.

Summer interns will also receive weekly professional-development sessions including panels with television-industry leaders, customized seminars on personal brand-building, and navigating the job market ahead.

Exclusively for Southern California college students, the Foundation also offers the “Getting Real Unscripted Internship” for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are interested in nonfiction television careers. In addition, internships for foster youth in the greater Los Angeles area, provided through an endowment gift from Dick Wolf’s Wolf Family Foundation, are available.

“The Foundation is committed to providing career-advancement opportunities for students from all backgrounds,” said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy Foundation. “Our Internship Program allows students from across the country to break into Hollywood in their desired media Professions.” 

Established in 1980, the Foundation’s Internship Program has been instrumental in launching many careers of prominent writers, producers, directors, executives, and Emmy nominees and winners, the Academy said. All selected interns become lifelong members of the Television Academy’s alumni network, gaining access to exclusive networking opportunities, year-round industry events and an online alumni platform.

LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy Foundation is launching a new internship program designed to promote diversity in the unscripted/reality TV sector of the entertainment industry, with the first-ever batch of interns to take part in the summer of 2021.

The Diversity and Inclusion Unscripted Internship Program will provide five internships to students from low-income backgrounds that are attending college/university within the greater Los Angeles area; only graduating students with degrees conferred by June 2021 are eligible to apply. In addition, the TV Academy wants students who “demonstrate a commitment to promoting voices and stories of underrepresented communities and increasing diversity and inclusion” in the TV industry.

The eight-week, paid summer internship will give students exposure to professional unscripted/reality TV production in Los Angeles. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, only remote internships will be offered for this year. There will also be weekly online evening professional development, including panels with TV industry leaders, customized seminars and access to Foundation alumni.

At the completion of the internship, participating interns will join the TV Academy Foundation’s Friends and Alumni Network and be eligible to participate in career support programming provided by the Foundation.

Among the types of internships that the TV Academy Foundation has listed on its website right now are development of unscripted TV with a production company or studio and casting with a production company or office of a casting director.

Per Variety, the internship program was announced on Jan. 26 by Chris Abrego, who serves as chairman of the TV Academy Foundation. Variety quotes him as saying:

“How do we find these younger people of color who want the opportunity? I literally grew up, born and raised, 22 miles from Hollywood, but it might as well have been more than 3,000 miles. [This idea] spoke to exactly what was my story and how I got started. And it made complete sense to me. We truly want to integrate them into this business. Our ultimate goal is employment.”

The submission period for the Diversity and Inclusion Unscripted Internship Program will open on April 7 and run through May 5. Voting members of the TV Academy will select the finalists in early May, upon which finalists will have to submit a video interview to specific questions. Students selected for the program will be notified in late May. Remote internships would take place from June 13-Aug. 13.

For more information, visit the TV Academy Foundation website. 

LOS ANGELES—A pair of college students will have the chance to boldly go into the world of “Star Trek” as interns via a new program created by CBS Television Studios and the Television Academy Foundation.

“Television Academy Foundation Internships: ‘Star Trek’ Command Training Program” will get underway in the summer of 2020 and is designed for graduate and undergraduate college students nationwide, echoing two of the core values of Gene Roddenberry’s classic sci-fi series of inclusion and diversity, as well as inspiring and educating the next generation of TV leaders.

The “Star Trek” internship program will go year round and have two interns per semester working on a “Star Trek” series. The interns will get a complete immersion into the production process, experiencing writers’ rooms, wardrobe design, on-set production, animation and postproduction. CBS will also coordinate mentorships and facilitate program curriculum. Interns will also be given lifetime professional support through the TV Academy Foundation’s alumni program.

“This partnership is an extraordinary opportunity to provide students with remarkable on-the-job training and experience in a creative environment that embodies intersectionality on-screen and behind the camera,” said foundation chair Madeline Di Nonno. “The success of our foundation alumni is a testament to the impact of our educational programs, and considering the values inherent in this new program, we have ever greater expectations for the students whose careers will be jumpstarted with this new internship experience.”

Applications for the program are being accepted from now until Jan. 21, 2020. All applicants must be 18 or older. Final selections will be announced at the end of March. More information can be found at TelevisionAcademy.com/internships.

WASHINGTON—Four NAB member stations have been selected by Pilot as the recipients of grants designed to fund paid engineering or media technology internships in the spring of 2020. The stations are WISR/WBUT/WLER, Butler County Radio Network in Butler, Pa.; KNXV, Scripps Media Inc. in Phoenix; WNKY, Marquee Broadcasting in Bowling Green, Ky.; and WKAR-AM, -FM, -TV, Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

The program, which began this past spring, is in partnership with the NABLF to help grow technical and engineering talent. The recipients are NAB members that do not currently offer engineering or media technology internships. Also as part of the program, NAB provides resources to help identify and support interns, including having them attend the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

“Pilot and the NAB Leadership Foundation remain committed to assisting NAB member stations in attracting the best and brightest new candidates to a career in broadcast technology,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Since it was initiated, the program has provided technology internship grants to 13 organizations.

For more information on the program, visit nabpilot.org/techinterns/.