During his first year at The Ohio State University, Josh Mink found himself navigating the overwhelming number of opportunities within the film and entertainment industry.
“I was figuring out what it means to work in this industry specifically,” Mink, a third-year majoring in moving image production, said. “What are you doing day-to-day? What does your involvement in a company look like? Are you an artist? Are you coming from the business perspective?”
To find those answers, Mink applied for a spring 2024 career trek to Los Angeles, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences (ASC) Center for Career and Professional Success. The four-day trip included visits to Amazon MGM Studios, BUCK Design and Nickelodeon, along with time to explore Hollywood and visit the city’s beaches.
“It gave me a lot of direction for what to do with regard to Los Angeles, the arts and combining that with my experience at Ohio State,” Mink said. “It was neat to see that there are Buckeyes who go on to work in entertainment at this large scale.”
Mink’s experience was one of many events in ASC Career Success’s career immersion series, which brings students on local and cross-country networking trips to visit employer worksites, receive advice from hiring managers and connect with professionals.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to really visualize what working there means. There’s often a tour, some kind of panel Q&A, and time for networking,” said Shirley Wu, assistant director of industry connections. “We want students to explore the new cities that we’re going to and talk to the companies, but more so than that, we want you to be able to understand yourself, your skills and the opportunities that are available to you.”
The series features both immersion days, in which students visit Columbus employers like the American Red Cross, Ohio Statehouse, Columbus Association for the Performing Arts and more, as well as career treks, which are longer academic break trips to cities like New York, Washington D.C. and Dallas, where students tour several sites.
ASC Career Success began organizing immersion experiences in 2018 to respond to limitations of on-campus career events. Since then, the series has expanded to include nearly a dozen immersion days and a trek for three different career pathways each year.
“It’s difficult for an individual company or organization to send a whole team of people to campus, but if we go to them, and all those resources are centralized there, they can develop a much richer experience,” Scott Kustis, director of industry connections, said. “It provided a lot of value-add to move the opportunities to the employers’ site, and we started to see we were getting better student engagement numbers by doing this.”
One of the most valuable parts of the immersion experience is the chance to network with Ohio State alumni who can provide industry insights and even job opportunities.
“We like to integrate alumni into the experience as much as possible,” Andrew Freeman, assistant director of industry connections, said. “The alumni get excited about being able to give back a little bit from their career journey to the current students.”
The professional connections Mink made on his trek helped him embark on a production studio internship the following summer—and they didn’t just benefit him.
“I’d kept up with people I met there, and now one is hopping on Zoom soon to talk with our Business of Entertainment Club,” Mink explained. “Students can bring these professional experiences back to campus and share those resources with peers.”
As the career success team plans spring 2026 treks and continues adding new daylong opportunities this semester, they urge all ASC students to register or apply for the experiences, which are largely subsidized by the College of Arts and Sciences.
“We are very willing to help students at any stage in their career, whether they are freshmen, seniors or coming back to school after a long time,” Wu said. “Career success is for everybody, and we want everyone to take advantage of our resources.”