Fonesca graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animation and even after an 8-month internship with animation studio, Film Roman, she is still searching for a position where she can utilize her skills and follow her dreams.
“They were going to offer me a job but it turns out they were doing some cuts,” said Fonesca who was an intern production assistant at Film Roman (“Super Hero Squad”, “The Avengers”). “So that’s what made it difficult to hire us (interns).
While she has applied to numerous studios she says that like all other jobs animation is a very competitive field.
“It’s really hard to get them to respond to you,” Fonesca said. “For example, Nickelodeon, when I applied for a job, it took them three months to answer back.”
Instead of doing nothing, Fonesca is currently a teacher’s assistant at Newcastle Elementary School where she helps kids with basic academic work and teaches art for an hour each day.
“I’m doing this teacher’s assistant thing that I’ve been doing for six years, because that’s what’s most immediate, I know how to do it and it pays the bills for now,” Fonesca said.
“I’m given the opportunity to teach art for like an hour a day. So I teach kids cartooning, landscape art, storyboarding. My teacher really loves it when I get into detail with the artwork.”
Although being a teacher’s assistant pays the bills for now, Fonesca makes it clear that teaching is not something she wants to pursue as a career.
“I do not want to be a teacher, that’s for sure,” Fonesca said. “I mean its fun, but I do not see myself correcting paperwork, I do not see myself going to those kinds of meetings for the district. I don’t want to keep doing the same routine everyday or dealing with kids attitudes, because they are difficult.”
Fonesca speaks from experience when it comes to middle school kids. In 2010, she taught animation at an after-school program at Lawrence Middle School in the San Fernando Valley.
“That was really, really tough,” Fonesca said. “Especially working with staff, they’re so picky about everything you do. They don’t see the importance in it (art) so you have no support.”
Fonesca said with all the state budget cuts the Los Angeles Unified School District is getting rid of their art program at the end of this school year.
So, for now, Fonesca will continue working as a teacher’s assistant while enrolling in community college this summer so she can apply for another internship, this time at Warner
Bros. Like with many internships, she needs to be a student to apply.
“I want to do an internship at Warner Bros,” Fonesca said. “It’s a way bigger studio than Film Roman. So I feel like if I do an internship then maybe I’ll have a chance to get production assistant.”
Fonesca urges all students, current or graduating, to try and get internships.
“(Internships) are really crucial,” Fonesca said. “You’ll get the experience. They’ll teach you other things that they don’t teach you at school. Simply because that’s not what the classes are about.”
When asked if she regrets majoring in animation since it’s been difficult to find a job she said no.
“I could never give art up,” Fonesca said. “It gives you this whole other different feeling, it’s amazing. It’s life itself. It is who I am.”