This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
English major Jennifer Carty ’04 (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) had an unusual opportunity to experience the fast-paced world of a New York City talent agency through an externship there.
Carty observed and participated in a variety of activities while shadowing Missy LaBov Dweck ’93, a talent agent at Don Buchwald & Associates.
She was among about 200 Lafayette students who gained first-hand knowledge of the professional world in January. They served externships with alumni and other experienced professionals in business, the arts, education, healthcare, law, engineering, science, government, non-profits, and other fields. The students observed work practices, learned about careers they may consider entering after college, and developed professional networking contacts.
“I could see myself trying it as a career!” Carty says. She learned how talent agents swiftly respond to casting agencies’ online advertisements by pitching their clients for movies, television, commercials, and theater.
“I got to sit in on a voice-over, where they make a recording of an actor trying to get work in commercials,” Carty says. “I also spent time with an assistant and saw what an entry-level job with the agency was like.”
For talent agents, she adds, “There’s a lot of phone work and negotiation. You could tell just by listening what kind of person they were talking with. There’s a degree of acting involved.”
Carty says she found the Buchwald staff friendly with a strong business sense, and describes her host as “very sweet, laid back, and real.”
“We had ‘life-chats’ about her past and my plans for the future. She offered to help me with her connections,” says the student.
Dweck says she got involved in the externship program because “I wanted to offer this as an outlet for students. A talent agency isn’t something many people interested in communications and marketing might think of for a career,” she says. But, she adds, “When they get a sampling of it, they often say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’”
Carty is now gaining experience in a different field by writing a theater show in the style of experimental artist Ping Chong as an independent research project based on research last summer with Suzanne Westfall, professor of English, for her book on Chong.