Georgetown University has a number of alumni holding key positions in film, television, music, and related businesses. Last year, he discussed his idea with some of those Georgetown graduates. They agreed to join him in launching the Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance (GEMA). “We got a list of 400 to 500 alumni in Southern California with ties to the entertainment industry,” Battista said. “We sent out an e-mail and got 220 people signed up. It was an incredible yield.”

Operated by a twenty-one-member advisory board chaired by Battista, GEMA also has a smaller honorary board of industry leaders. Battista explained GEMA’s three goals: “The first is to facilitate and foster career development for current students and for alumni who want to enter the industry or change jobs within it. The second is to create a collegial social and networking group. The third is to strengthen alumni ties with the university and Georgetown’s connection to the media and entertainment industries.” He stressed the diversity in GEMA and went on to clarify. “GEMA is not just for people in TV and movies,” Battista explained. “GEMA is for any Georgetown alum, student, or parent involved in any part of the entertainment and media world including journalism, theater, advertising, new media, publishing, and many others.” (About GEMA)

The new group’s first major initiative was to launch the GEMA Externship Program, a week-long career development experience for undergraduate, business, and law students. Battista and other board members designed the inaugural 2003 GEMA Externship Programs so students could meet executives from diverse areas of media and entertainment during their week in LA. The career centers from each of the associated schools at Georgetown University—the undergraduate school, the law center, and the business school—collaborated in choosing the participants. When the application process was announced for the spring program, fifty students applied for ten openings. Word spread quickly about the value of the program and 100 students applied for fifteen openings for the summer. In summer 2004, GEMA plans to add the GEMA Summer Internship Program, which will offer a few students a summer-long internship experience. (STUDENT EXTERNSHIP APPLICATION for spring 2004)

Second-year MBA student Matthew P. McMahon (SFS’96) used his spring 2003 externship to make contacts and find his own summer internship. Last summer, he worked on the launch of a new cable channel focusing on action sports and music at Fox.

A Los Angeles native, McMahon earned a Bachelor of Science in International Politics from Georgetown in 1996. On a whim, after graduation he applied for and got an entry-level assistant job at Twentieth Century Fox. That’s where he found he really liked the entertainment business. “I wanted to move into a more substantive position, and getting an MBA seemed like the best way to do that,” McMahon explained. “My biggest takeaway [from the externship] is that I learned I
want to be in television management and operations.” His GEMA externship and his summer experience exposed him to work in operations, marketing, and strategic development.

Access to contacts was also a key benefit of the externship for LaSean T. Smith (MBA’03.) Smith is now starting a production company with a partner. He had already worked as a record producer. He knows firsthand how difficult it is to break into the business without contacts.

Just before flying to Los Angeles last spring, Smith received his GEMA Externship itinerary with the names of the industry people he would either shadow or meet one-on-one. “Almost every studio was on there,” he marveled. And they were decision makers. “At that level, you can’t even get a call through unless you know someone.”

Smith believes his Georgetown MBA will make him valuable to his newly formed GEMA contacts. “A lot of management positions have typically been creative folks, and there weren’t a lot of strategy people,” he said. “The skill-set MBAs bring to the table is becoming more recognized in the industry.”

A major goal for the past summer has been to launch the GEMA Web site GEMA-Hoyas.org. “We are very excited about the GEMA Web site,” Battista said, “because it will allow us to broaden GEMA across the country. One of the member services on the GEMA site is GEMACONNECT, which is an organized way for alumni to seek out others for career networking.”

A near-term goal for GEMA is to create chapters in New York and Washington, D.C., where local events and activities can occur as they do in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Southern California group is initiating the GEMA Speakers Series, at which alumni can hear from and connect with fellow alumni and others who are industry leaders. Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, the first reception and panel discussion will focus on “The Future of Movie Making” and will be held on October 14 at Fox.

“What I like about GEMA is that it works both ways,” Battista said. “Alums can be helpful, and it’s also helpful to alums.”

This article is adapted from "From Wall Street to Hollywood Boulevard," by Susan Crites Price, originally published in Georgetown Business Magazine, Spring/Summer 2003.