Elon University Los Angeles summer students gathered with alumni and special guests for an end-of-summer semester celebration at historic Sony Pictures Studios.
Not far from where the Yellow Brick Road began in the legendary film “The Wizard of Oz” was shot on the then-MGM lot in 1939, Elon University Los Angeles summer session students gathered for a unique end-of-session event held at Sony Pictures Studios, in Culver City, California.
These students were joined by Los Angeles-based alumni, program faculty and staff, visitors from the main campus, internship site owners and student supervisors, and industry guests for an evening celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of this summer’s cohort and recent Los Angeles alumni.
For 16 years, Elon has offered specialized, career-focused and immersive academic programming and internship opportunities for students in domestic National Campus locations. The endeavor began in 2008 with Elon University Los Angeles under the umbrella of Study USA and the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center.
This summer’s session-ending presentation included stand-up comedy performances by Assistant Professor Kai Swanson’s comedy writing students Mackenzie Smith ’25 and Jesse Riback ’25 and the showcasing of comedy TikTok-style videos produced by Swanson’s comedy production students.
Voice acting students showcased their achievements in a video highlighting the skills they learned in their summer course with industry professional and Los Angeles faculty member Ed Cunningham. Student Carina Kaplan ’26 curated and produced “Lens on LA,” a still image presentation that opened the event and featured a collection of shots from Los Angeles summer events and activities taken by Kaplan and eight other students.
Three short films produced by Los Angeles-based alumni were also screened at the event in a first-time presentation of content produced by the recipients of production funds from Elon University Los Angeles. Frank Campisano ’16 (“Secret Menu Beauty Pageant”); Lauren Duncan ’18 and Alyssa Needham ’19 (“On My Time”) and Dylan Moon ’13 and Tyler Hansen ’14 (“Small Town Psychopaths”) were on hand to experience the thrill of seeing their work presented in a screening room of a major Hollywood studio.
The gathering represented Elon University Los Angeles’s ongoing outreach to develop and nurture meaningful relationships with local community members in an effort to broaden the reach and the impact of the program and to create unique opportunities for both current and future Los Angeles-bound students and alumni based in the city.
