When artistically inclined Kathryn Durfee arrived on campus from Atlanta, GA, she didn’t have a clear major in mind, nor what she really wanted to do with her interests in the French language, films, writing, and photography. She certainly could not have imagined that she would finish her UGA career with an internship at Blue Sky animation studios to work as a student production assistant for the animated movie Ice Age 3.

It took several of Dr. Richard Neupert’s film studies classes, and his mentoring of this young student with a quiet but determined passion for film, to reveal to Kathryn that she wanted to declare a film studies major. While perusing her course options, Kathryn stumbled upon several animation classes and decided to give them a try. She instantly loved Professor Mike Hussey’s animation classes and knew what she would like to do in her future.

During May 2008, Kathryn traveled to Cannes, France to attend the Cannes Film festival. And in August, 2008 traveled to Los Angeles, CA as a student volunteer at the esteemed SIGGRAPH, where she was one of 400 national and international student volunteers accepted from an application pool of 2000.  Kathryn networked with people such as the director of “Kung Fu Panda” and the art director for the Ice Age movies and Horton Hears a Who! The latter introduced her to the idea of interning for Blue Sky Animation Studio, which hopefully will become the start of a successful career in the animation film industry. Kathryn entered the Honors Program as a Collegiate Entry student after her first semester at UGA.

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