Warner Bros. Entertainment Announces 2017 Reach Program Honorship Recipients
(May 22, 2017 – Burbank, CA) – Warner Bros. Entertainment has announced high school seniors Isabella Cassandra-Newman, Xinye (Leaf) Hou, Xochilt Khoury, Xochitl Torres, and Jacob Sugars as the 2017 Reach Honorship recipients.
Through its Reach program, Warner Bros. awards internship and scholarship packages, known as Honorships, to five graduating high school seniors passionate about the business of entertainment each year. As part of these Honorships, students are each awarded $5,000 scholarships and the opportunity to complete four paid summer internships at Warner Bros., beginning with the summer immediately following their high school graduation. Additionally, the scholars are paired with a different executive mentor each summer and provided additional networking opportunities with entertainment industry professionals. Successful Reach program graduates are eligible to apply for full-time positions at the company after completing their degrees.
“The Reach Honorship program is intended to provide a few of the exceptional young people in our community with a truly unique opportunity and unparalleled multi-year access to the entertainment industry,” said Mary-Elizabeth Michaels, Director, Community Affairs, Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Our program exposes the students to a corporate setting to gain first-hand experience learning various business practices at Warner Bros., as well as to build a network of contacts and hone the professional skills that will best prepare them for their post-college careers.”
This year’s Burbank Reach Honorships, created specifically for residents of the studio’s longtime hometown, were awarded to Xochilt Khoury and Xochitl Torres. A recent graduate of John Burroughs High School, Khoury is set to study literature at UC San Diego this fall, while Burbank High School’s Torres is headed to California State University-Long Beach to major in film and electronic arts with a minor in marketing.
Isabella Cassandra-Newman and Xinye (Leaf) Hou have received this year’s Los Angeles County Reach Honorships. Cassandra-Newman, graduating from LA County High School for the Arts, will be pursuing a double major in English (concentrating on creative writing) and photojournalism at George Washington University in the fall. Following her graduation from South Pasadena High School, Hou will matriculate to UC Berkeley this fall to study economics.
Additionally, Jacob Sugars has won the Warner Bros. Animation/Hanna-Barbera Reach Honorship. Another graduate of Burbank High School, Sugars was selected among a highly competitive field of applicants from across the United States to earn the Animation Honorship, and he plans to study animation this fall at California State University-Fullerton.
For more information on the Reach Program, visit www.wbcitizenship.com.
About Warner Bros. Entertainment:
Warner Bros. Entertainment, a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company, is a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of entertainment and their related businesses. A Time Warner Company, Warner Bros. stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry, from feature films to television, home video/DVD, animation, comic books, interactive entertainment and games, product and brand licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting.