>> After undergraduate, after I graduated from Penn State,
I moved out to California for my dream job.
And right after graduation, I got to work for the X Games.
And that was a freelance gig.
And I work for the X Games and they're associated events
on and off for the next few years.
But in the other times when I wasn't working with them,
I was looking for other freelance gigs.
And I didn't really like the industry San Diego so I moved to San Francisco.
And ended up in Silicon Valley during the rise of Silicon Valley.
And ultimately -- I was also there when it wasn't doing well, and I got laid off.
And I thought what should I do because I'm kind of tired at this point.
And I want to do something where I'm giving back to society.
And so I decided to become a teacher.
And so with my past as a filmmaker -- I said, okay, well, what can I teach?
Well, ultimately, I ended up teaching at a private school.
And I taught fifth grade.
I really loved the educational process.
And I loved teaching children.
And I thought, okay, if I love teaching children, should I go back and get my credential
for teaching in public schools or should I go and should I get my MFA
so I can teach at the college level?
So I was like, okay, let me look into getting an MFA to be able to teach at the collegiate level.
At the time, the two top programs were Stanford and Temple University.
And so I applied to both places.
And I got into Temple.
And this was for documentary filmmaking.
The reason I chose documentary was because of the idea that I loved filmmaking.
And I love educating people.
And so I felt like I could educate people through my films, if I made documentaries.