Patricia Valencia, senior at Olivet Nazarene University, was recently sent home from her semester studying abroad in Los Angeles due to the coronavirus.
Valencia is a multimedia communication major with a film studies concentration. In fact, most students with this major come to Olivet specifically looking to study abroad at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center—Valencia is no exception.
“It’s probably the biggest reason why I attended Olivet. They really didn’t have to convince me because what I really wanted to do was work in film.”
Patricia valencia
LAFSC is a program designed to cultivate their students into show business by giving them internships, building their résumés, and finding their voices as storytellers, according to Best Semester.
While in Hollywood, Valencia got to learn from her internship for Michael Shamberg. Shamberg’s biggest works include Erin Brockovich and Pulp Fiction.
On top of this, moving to LA was the first time Valencia had moved away from home. She commuted to Olivet and still lives with her parents, so it took her some time to figure out what life-on-her-own looks like. She initially had some struggles getting accustomed to life in California, especially without having a car.
After the hard work and acclimation getting to the Los Angeles, the experience was taken away from Valencia and her fellow peers all too soon.
“It was really heartbreaking. We were in the middle of filming,” Valencia said.
The leadership at LAFSC told the students on a Thursday that they had to be completely moved out by Monday. This action was recommended to the country by the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.
The coronavirus is not something to be taken lightly. Since leaving LA, there have been over 900,000 cases and over 50,000 deaths, according to the CDC.
Valencia and her team were planning on filming the pilot of their show the same weekend they were told to go home. The hardest part for the team was not seeing all of its hard work come to fruition.
“Knowing the project might never be done is probably the biggest stab in the heart,” Valencia said.
But there is still hope. At the beginning of each semester, LAFSC gave each group a budget to fully produce their projects and the money will still be available until June. Valencia was one of two people in their group who handled the money and she and her team are requesting to have the deadline extended.
They are in conversation with the filming location contacts, actors and actresses, and LAFSC and hope return at some point to finish the production.
“I know when we come back, they’re going to be very open to letting up use equipment space,” Valencia said, “they did say that whoever wants to finish a project, they’re going to try and help as much as they can.”
For Valencia and her team, there isn’t another option. They have to go back to LA to complete their projects.
This optimism is shared among other LAFSC students who were forced to come home early. Click here to read another student’s story.
In some ways, having her senior year cut short was easy. She was lucky enough to have already said goodbye to Olivet when she officially left the campus in the fall.
“It’s not an, ‘oh no, I’m not going to be able to see my friends anymore’ feeling, it’s more of an ‘oh no, what am I going to do now?’”
Patricia Valencia
LAFSC was the bridge to getting students like Valencia into the show business of Hollywood. Valencia feels as though she has at least learned that. She made connections to people in the industry and met friends that she will have forever. Her movie is far from over.
Click here to see how another LAFSC student continues his project.
Click here to learn more about Olivet Nazarene University’s communication department.
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