The sun is shining, the parrots are squawking, the parking lot is full, and the temperature is in the mid-40s! That must mean it’s the start of the Spring 2016 semester. Welcome back, Panthers!

Whether you’re just joining us again after a long winter break, or you just had the weekend off from the Winter interterm, we’re so glad you’re back with us. A lot has happened in the weeks you’ve been away, so let’s take a moment to recap what you may have missed!

For starters, just before the year ended, we welcome Kevin Harman into the Dodge College family. Kevin is our new Festival and Industry Relations Specialist. He’s the guy that is the go-to expert on all things film festivals, and if you want to get into some, you should chat with him. He was kind enough to share his background and how he hopes to help the students, so be sure to read up on him in this blog post. He’s also set up a great series of lectures, the Industry Dialogues Panel Series, the first of which, Salute Your Shorts, will be Wednesday, February 10!

We are proud of our Film Studies program, which is why we featured it on the blog throughout January. Our entire Film Studies faculty (Dr. Emily Carman, Dr. Nam Lee, and Dr. Kelli Fuery) are all excellent professors, and make the program shine.

Speaking of Dr. Carman, she recently released her book Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System and also edited the anthology Hollywood and the Law. Be sure to read this blog to learn more about them.

We’re also proud to have Rob Cohen as our filmmaker-in-residence for this semester. While applications are now closed for his class, there will be plenty of dinners and movies to attend with him this coming year. Be sure to check the Slate every week for more information!

Internships are a big part of the college experience, and we’re thankful that Brett Melnick (BFA/Television Writing and Producing ’16) was able to share some insight into the importance of them in his guest post over the interterm.

The interterm takes students to a lot of places, especially when they are on a travel course. Professor David Kost’s class Film Capitals of the World took students to London and Paris, while Professor Kiki Terasaki’s Outside Hollywood took them to Hawai’i.

We’ve always known we’ve had some fantastic alumni, but their accomplishments seem to shine more and more every year. For example, Ingrid Sundberg (MFA/Screenwriting ’03) had her debut novel All We Left Behind come out very recently, and was kind enough to talk to us about it.

Finally, some Dodge alum (and a current student!) were part of the creative team behind a game taking the interactive world by storm, OXENFREE. Check out our blog on them, and find out how you can win a copy of the game for yourself!

A lot has happened over the interterm, but we’re looking forward to hearing all your stories during this coming semester as well! If you are working on a cool film, projects, or anything at all, and would like it featured on the blog, feel free to send us an email, and we’d love to do so.

Again, welcome back to another fantastic semester, and we look forward to hearing, and sharing, your stories!