Meet Maria.

As a Chile native, she traveled over 5,000 miles to join the Master of Communication Management family. The decision to come to America in pursuit of her Master’s degree was not an easy one because she had a successful career in South America. There, she worked in the movie industry. However, she believes that learning the American film industry will be an asset to her career: “I needed to understand and be in the middle of the American film industry to improve the South American film industry. This program has a real industry approach. It has a wider scope and is more complete.”

When looking at programs, she considered the USC Cinematic School, however, she is happy with her decision to be a part of Annenberg. She said, “Here, all my projects have been related to TV and film, so I don’t need to be in a film school. I have learned about marketing, which is an area that South America lacks.” There are many ways in which the program has improved her knowledge of the industry: “Here [film producers] think of the audience from the beginning. In South America they have the idea, they produce it and fully make the movie, and then they have to find an audience. But by then it’s too late. That is something very different.”

Maria plans to take what she learns back to Chile. The education from the MCM program, along with her industry experience, will help her take the South American film industry by storm.