Toros Grabbing Hollywood by the Horns

The Hollywood by the Horns Program was first launched in the fall of 2014 at CSUDH with two missions in mind—to create meaningful connections between the talented students and professionals in the entertainment industries and to foster students' creative voices to help them see how they can best make an impact on the entertainment industries.

The name, Hollywood by the Horns, embodies the hope to encourage Toro students and for them to take Hollywood by the horns. Since its inception, it has since become a crucial program on campus and a gold standard initiative for the Communications Department and the FTVM degree program.

Associate professors Dr. Ryan Bowles Eagle and Toddy Eames have both led the program, and their dedication to it shows again and again. Each year, Hollywood by the Horns hosts events on and off campus that bring students closer to the professionals and work practices in the entertainment industry.

The professionals brought in by Hollywood by the Horns are experts in telling stories, including screenwriters and professional actors. They give advice to students on how to improve or tweak things they are writing in order to make their stories more powerful. Students learn through the program to not be afraid to open up and share their emotions through storytelling.

"They get to be exposed to professional stories to how they got to where they are, which oftentimes, I've found from both teaching that class and sitting in on it, their professional stories are often times circuitous, they don't follow one set path," said Dr. Eagle. "So it helps students see that 'maybe I as a student haven't had the direct path that somebody else has had. Maybe my path isn't something that makes sense to somebody else. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to end up where I'm meant to be or where I dream of being because everybody's path to get there is different.' So I think it opens up doors for our students in terms of what they can imagine for themselves and it opens up new understandings of how these industries work, where they might find fulfillment, where they might find meaning."

Story Slam is an impactful part of the program where students can really hone in on their craft and learn to tell their stories in front of large audiences. The students who participate in Story Slam are incredibly courageous as it takes a lot of strength to go up in front of a room full of strangers who you are unfamiliar with and be vulnerable. It helps them connect to their peers in a way that is unlike any other event on campus.

This program is incredibly important to CSUDH and is worth attending to experience for yourself.

The Hollywood by the Horns program also offers many other tools and events to help students get a sense of what it's like to work in the industry. It helps by offering practical programming like panels, workshops, job shadowing, tours, mentoring and feedback. Courses both for credit and non-credit are offered that focus on increasing students' access to and opportunities within the media industries.

Hollywood by the Horns strongly advocates that by bringing together students and industry professionals, the program can both create a pathway to careers and put students in a position to change the landscape of the entertainment industry. The students of CSU Dominguez Hills are incredibly creative with unique voices and have the potential to be a valuable resource for Hollywood. They also possess the power to make changes in the narratives told and the stories created.

"The industry at large is really looking to support and encourage and hire our student population," explained Eames. "They're looking for underrepresented voices which certainly we have on campus in spades and so it's a matter of sort of bridging that gap on the one hand, equipping our students so that they are competitive in the field and to be able to secure these jobs but also to create bridges between the companies that are making the decisions that are doing the hiring and our students. I know that they are looking for these stories and looking for our students."

Programming for Hollywood by the Horns is highly valuable for students to take advantage of. The program nurtures students' creative voices and storytelling skills. It allows them to have a safe space to be themselves. It facilitates important encounters between students and professionals. This is to bridge the gap between student life and professionals.

A main focus is emphasizing the diversity of the campus where professionals can equally utilize the diversity of the student body at Dominguez Hills. This in turn provides valuable insight into the inner workings of the entertainment industry. This can highlight the tools necessary to carve a path into the job market.

These events also allow students to look at media critically and ensure that they go into their new careers being able to better navigate through it and be more successful.

"I think there are two ways we hope to help students," said Eames. "One is to inspire them to dream big with their professional goals. I think having direct interaction with people who are sustaining a career, with people who can speak directly about their experience, and maybe the students can see their own experience reflected in the speaker, then they can feel like maybe they can do it too."

Hollywood by the Horns and the Women's Studies Program and the Women's Resource Center hosted Luna Fest last year as part of the 7th annual Women's Conference. To start things off, there was a keynote lunch and yoga with Jessamyn Stanley, an award-winning author, body positivity advocate, yoga teacher and entrepreneur.

The list of events included the beauty in entrepreneurship, establishing culturally informed boundaries, a self-love poetry workshop, LUNAFEST film screening and a happy hour mixer. Students discussed their experiences and received feedback from Stanley on the fundamentals of being an entrepreneur and what her experiences have been like. Having this kind of insight for students is incredibly engaging and creates meaningful connections for those involved.

Keeping programs like these on campus has proven to be a vital resource for students to take advantage of and will continue to do so. The sheer success and vitality of the program speaks volumes to the dedication of staff, students and professionals willing to open a dialogue and engage in meaningful conversations about how to improve Hollywood's current landscape.

While progress may be slow, the impact is felt throughout the industry with so many diverse stories being told on multiple platforms. The future looks promising for the talented and hardworking students who want to create engaging stories for years to come.

"We've always believed that our students have incredible stories to tell, that they have valuable perspectives, and working through the experience in the Finding Your Voice workshop I think allows students to reflect on how they got where they are, how they became the people that they, where they want to take that story, and how to tell it in a way that connects them to other people," Dr. Eagle said. "Because really the more vulnerable, the more personal we can get in our storytelling, actually the more universal it becomes, the more that other people relate to us. So, that's the reasoning behind that program."