{"id":39,"date":"2019-07-17T18:17:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/2011-youre-hired\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:17:48","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:17:48","slug":"2011-youre-hired","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/2011-youre-hired\/","title":{"rendered":"“You’re Hired!”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 Real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump is many things to many people. But to three former WCSU students, Trump is \u201cboss.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tom Trocola, Justin Rosini and Mike Hartel each recently worked on Trump\u2019s popular television show, \u201cCelebrity Apprentice.\u201d Hartel and Rosini were communications\/theatre arts majors who knew each other as students (Hartel graduated in 1998; Rosini attended from 1997-2003). Trocola graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in theatre arts.<\/p>\n

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Trocola, of Danbury; Rosini, of Sharon; and Hartel, of Westport, performed different tasks on the show, but the presence of three former WCSU students on the crew sums up something the theatre arts department has been proclaiming for years: Our proximity to New York City gives us the advantage of its vast resources and provides ample opportunities for our students to perfect their craft.<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s impossible to break into the highly competitive job market in theatre or television, right?

\n Not so, says Trocola. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile in college I got my first job on the set of \u2018The Private Lives of Pippa Lee\u2019 as an intern\/production assistant (PA),\u201d Trocola explains. \u201cThen I worked for \u2018Project Runway,\u2019 \u2018Top Chef,\u2019 \u2018Make Me a Supermodel,\u2019 and a Donna Karen shoot, \u2018Urban Zen.\u2019 After graduation, I worked for the Connecticut Film Festival, \u2018Real World DC,\u2019 \u2018Real Housewives of New York,\u2019 \u2018Bethenny Getting Married, \u2018Project Runway,\u2019 and as the task coordinator for \u2018Celebrity Apprentice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rosini, who has worked as a location scout and location manager for feature films and television shows since 2004, has an impressive resume that also started as soon as he left WCSU. It includes work on the films \u201cSpider-Man 3,\u201d \u201cAmerican Gangster\u201d and \u201cFor Colored Girls,\u201d and the television series \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm,\u201d \u201cWhite Collar\u201d and \u201cCupid,\u2019 to name a few. <\/p>\n

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One of two assistant location managers for \u201cCelebrity Apprentice,\u201d Rosini, 32, says his education prepared him for a career in the entertainment industry. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWCSU set me up with a network of like-minded individuals who are also working in the field,\u201d he says. \u201cI met Mike Hartel, who gave me my first job in the entertainment business, at WCSU, and I continue to see people from the university in New York City who are working in the industry.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Hartel has had a similarly successful employment history since transferring from Sacred Heart to pursue a Western theatre arts degree in 1995.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI got an actor\u2019s equity stage managing job the day I finished college,\u201d he says. \u201cI made $390 a week before taxes \u2026 big time!\u201d <\/p>\n

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From there, Hartel has handled location scouting and location management responsibilities for multiple TV series including \u201cSex and the City,\u201d \u201cCashmere Mafia\u201d and \u201cUgly Betty.\u201d \u201cRevolutionary Road,\u201d \u201cWar of the Worlds\u201d and \u201cNational Treasure\u201d are just a few of the more than a dozen films on which he has worked.<\/p>\n

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Hartel credits WestConn\u2019s faculty and fellow alumni with the progress he\u2019s made in his career.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe professors at Western are all working actor\/director\/producer types so it gave me the discipline and understanding to navigate a truly crazy business that I would never have understood otherwise,\u201d he says. \u201cThe WCSU theatre program was the right size to let everyone have successes and failures before getting kicked out of the nest. And our alumni all seem to stay working and we keep each other working.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 40-year-old, who was the location manager for \u201cCelebrity Apprentice,\u201d said something he learned nearly 15 years ago at WCSU rang true during taping of the high-profile reality-TV show with the boss known for the dramatic way he fires people.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s going to sound silly, but (Professor Emeritus of Communications and Theatre Arts) Bill Walton had a policy of \u2018on-time is late in this business\u2019 and boy was he right,\u201d Hartel explains. \u201cPeople get fired for being late all the time \u2026 it just happened on \u2018Celebrity Apprentice\u2019 this season!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Now that \u201cCelebrity Apprentice\u201d has wrapped, Trocola hopes to move on to producing television shows. Rosini\u2019s goals include producing films or TV shows and acting. Hartel sees work as a production manager in the near term, but hopes to direct eventually. There\u2019s no question that all of them will be busy and working in the industry.<\/p>\n

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Trump, the trio\u2019s most recent employer, has been quoted as saying, \u201cI’m a bit of a P.T. Barnum. I make stars out of everyone.\u201d In the case of Trocola, Hartel and Rosini, he\u2019ll have to share some of the credit with WestConn.<\/p>\n

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\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 Real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump is many things to many people. But to three former WCSU students, Trump is \u201cboss.\u201d Tom Trocola, Justin Rosini and Mike Hartel each recently …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}