The Harvard- Westlake Student Alumni Association (HWSAA) hosted the event HW4L Campus: Alumni in Entertainment on Monday. Students had the option of attending the event on Zoom or in-person at Ahmanson Lecture Hall where snacks were provided.

Club leaders moderated the event, and students learned about career opportunities in the entertainment industry. The event was originally planned to occur earlier and fully in person, but due to the Omicron surge, the event was postponed and switched to Zoom.

Associate Director of Alumni Relations Ivy Bunnak said she thought the event was successful albeit panelists not being in person.

HWSAA Co-Chair Eloise Dupee ’22 said the conversion of the event to zoom allowed HWSAA to host more panelists.

“I began reaching out to alumni before winter break, as the event was originally supposed to be earlier and in person,” Dupee said. “However, due to Omicron, we had to postpone the event and switch it to zoom, which actually made it more accessible and we were able to host a wider variety of panelists.”

Dupee said the event achieved its goal as students were able to gain many insights about the entertainment industry through the alumni’s perspectives.

“The purpose of the event was to provide members of HWSAA with as many unique perspectives as possible from HW alumni that are currently in the entertainment industry,” Dupee said. “We also aim to facilitate connections between students and alumni for future career endeavors, and the panelists were all super passionate and provided really thoughtful insights. As they came from different graduating years and even different industries in entertainment including film, screenwriting, acting, and even the theme park industry, attendees of the panel were able to get lots of different perspectives and even pieces of advice from people that also went to HW.”

Zoe Roth ’24 said she enjoyed attending the event because it taught her about opportunities the school provides in the entertainment industry.

“I would definitely go to an event like this in the future,” Roth said. “I loved learning about the entertainment industry and the opportunities Harvard-Westlake will give us in the future when looking for a job in this industry.”

HWSAA Co-Chair Colin Yuan ’22 said the event had a good turnout, and HWSAA is looking forward to planning the next HW4L Campus event.

“We had a good turnout; we had almost 20 people attend,” Yuan said. “The next HW4L event is already in the works! We hope to bring in alumni from an even more popular industry and have them speak to current students.”