Page 12 - Endowment Report 2022 | University of Rochester

Made in the

editing room:

Grace Stensland ’23

CLASS OF 1981 INTERNSHIP ENDOWMENT

Grace Stensland ’23, a Syracuse, New York, native, grew kids’ comedy series; Paramount+’s Big Nate, a kid’s
up loving movies, photography, and Broadway shows. series created by Nickelodeon; and Netflix’s Inside Job,
When it came time to choose a college, she was drawn an adult-oriented science fiction series. Her primary
to Rochester for its open curriculum, which she knew responsibilities included editing sound effects, creating
would give her many opportunities to explore her ambient sounds, and maintaining client services.
broad interests. Working as an intern in the summer of
2022 helped her hone those interests, too, and find her Sound Rebels even tasked Stensland with a special
niche—an experience made possible by the Class of project: to sound design eight minutes of an episode of
1981 Internship Endowment. Inside Job. “I’ve been a big fan of this show for a long
time,” she says. “It was such a thrill to go from watching
Stensland found her internship by tapping into her it to actually creating sound for it, especially for such a
network, which she learned how to do at her work- big segment within an episode.”
study job at the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career
Education & Connections. “Working at the Greene Toward the end of the summer, McIntyre and Lynch
Center during my sophomore and junior years gave me approached Stensland about coming on board full-time
insight into the importance of networking, interviewing, after graduation as a sound editor. “I loved every minute
and professional communication,” she says. “So, of my internship, so being offered a full-time job left me
when it came time for me to look for an internship, I speechless,” she says. “I did manage to say yes, though,
reached out to my audio engineering professor, Stephen and I can’t wait to start working there full-time.”
Roessner. I knew he had a friend in Los Angeles who
worked in the entertainment business, and I asked him Stensland adds, “Even though many internships pay
to connect me, which he did.” an hourly rate, it’s often not enough to cover other
expenses,” she adds. “That was certainly the case for
Roessner’s friend is Rob McIntyre, an Emmy Award- me. Los Angeles is expensive, and I never would have
winning supervising sound editor who cofounded been able to afford housing and food without the
Sound Rebels, LLC, a Burbank, California-based audio assistance of the Class of 1981 Internship Endowment.
post-production company that provides sound design This experience led to my dream job right out of the
and mixing services for animated television, movies, gate, which is incredibly rare for people graduating and
and reality TV. McIntyre and his business partner, D.J. hoping to work in film and television. The funding
Lynch, interviewed Stensland over Zoom and she aced support I received gave me a head start on my career,
it, securing the summer-long internship. and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

The internship was a great fit. Every day, she worked
on such projects as Nickelodeon’s Middlemost Post, a

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