Some students spend their summer break soaking up the sun. Nick Lively wasn’t one of them.

Lively recently graduated from Florida State University in with a degree in Digital Media Production. Through the LATE program, he went to Los Angeles to intern for the summer. Before he left the Sunshine State, he clocked over 250 hours with Seminole Productions recording live football, baseball and basketball games.

The FSU LATE (Los Angeles Television Experience) program brought him out to California and his hard work morphed into a job. “FSU was very helpful in both getting me out here and getting me employed,” said Lively. “There is a tight-nit group of FSU alums out here who work together and help each other out.”

Currently, Nick is working at Soapbox Films as a VFX and Motions Graphics Assistant in Burbank, California. He spends his days working on promotional and creative content for clients like Disney and FOX. Most recently, he worked on a piece for Fandango, promoting Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

President of Soapbox Films, David Smith, is an FSU alumni with a dedication to bringing Seminoles onboard.  “Almost half of the employees at Soapbox are FSU Film and Media Production alumni,” reports Lively.

Bob Pekurny started the LATE program to bring 8-12 students to Los Angeles every summer and integrate them into the industry. The 13-week program provides an internship, as well as guest speakers, field trips and lectures. Over 90 FSU students have gone through the program since it’s inception in 2006. While Pekurny retired last summer, he returned as an adjunct to inspire a final group of students.

“Nick was one of the outstanding students I had the pleasure of teaching the last year before I retired. I was pleased that I was able via the LATE ’14 program to help him get placed at Soapbox, one of the rare paid internships, and that Nick’s work during that internship led to his being hired,” said retired Media Production Professor Bob Pekurny.

“The most important thing I got from FSU was the connections I made with the faculty and fellow students. They taught me so much about the film industry and helped push me in the right direction,” said Lively.

He plans to stay in California and continue his career in television and production.