Warner Bros. Entertainment has announced high school seniors Isabella Cassandra-Newman, Xinye (Leaf) Hou, Xochilt Khoury, Xochitl (Xo) 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 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 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 both 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.”
Burbank High School’s own Jacob Sugars has earned the Warner Bros. Animation/Hanna-Barbera Reach Honorship. With plans to study animation at California State-Fullerton, Sugars represents the first-time Burbank winner of the highly competitive Warner Bros. Animation/Hanna-Barbera Reach Honorship, the sole Honorship open to applicants across the United States.
Additionally, this year’s Burbank Reach Honorships were awarded to Xochilt Khoury and Xochitl (Xo) Torres, marking the first time since the 2010 class that three of the recipients hail from Burbank. 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 are the recipients of 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. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Hou will matriculate to UC Berkeley this fall to study economics
