CSUF Student Shines at KCET
Peter Martinez is only 20 years old, but he’s already spent three years working as an intern at KCET-TV in Los Angeles. Martinez is such a fixture of the station that he sits in on high-level meetings with station and university officials, helping to address engineering and technical issues involved with the new KCET Orange.
Martinez, a junior radio-TV-film major, also works as an executive producer and production coordinator at Titan Communications, the university’s own television station. His work can be seen on the Titan Channel, Orange County cable channel 98.
A recipient of the Emma L. Bowen Foundation internship, which prepares minority youth for careers in the media industry, Martinez was matched with KCET during his senior year in high school and has worked for the station during his summer and school breaks ever since, learning many aspects of corporate operations and developing various skills. During the Bowen scholarship program, students earn an hourly salary and matching funds for college expenses. They are required to maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
In turn, the participating corporations have an opportunity to train and mentor the students with the option of fulltime employment upon completion of their college degrees.
“It’s been a match made in heaven for me,” Martinez says of his internship with KCET. “I feel I couldn’t be in a better position.”
He looks forward to the upcoming KCET Orange station as the “professional partnering of KCET with one of the largest communication schools in the country. Traditionally, children and older adults are the PBS audience. CSUF students could fill that gap. We will give public television a youthful edge – something no other PBS station in the country may have.”
Cal State Fullerton will benefit, Martinez believes, through the exposure the station can bring. “The opportunities are endless,” he said. “I hope that the professional and student programming comes together seamlessly. It takes talent and hard work, but I believe we’ll see it through in the end.” 
