Performing Arts Department alumnus Michael Pepp discusses life after graduation and offers advice to current and graduating students.

For each year’s graduation ceremony, SFUAD selects one senior to give the class speech. This year’s speaker is soon-to-be Film School graduate Max Marriner.

There are few things more intimidating than a senior getting ready to graduate from college. Being thrown into the world while also being forced to truly grow up is a hard transition. The Countdown, directed by Lia Gotz, targets this subject completely. “These women have worked really hard for the last four years towards adulthood and once it hit’s their youth is lost,” says Gotz. This student-produced film portrays two women getting ready to graduate when they happen upon a bucket list they made in previous years. With graduation the next day, they decide they have to honor their teen souls by completing their bucket list with the time they have left. “Youth is something that’s passing by really quickly and these women start to realize they have to grow up, have to get a jobs, have to start making money to support themselves,” Gotz explains. These powerhouse women working alongside Gotz came together to create a comedic film that students all over campus will be able to relate to in one way or another. They’ve spent the past five months writing scripts and raising their goal of $3,000 towards making this dream a reality. Since they’re working on a tight budget, they intend on make good use of school grounds and shoot the majority of the film on campus. “We really just want to show people what we can do,” says Gotz. “We’re not daisies, we can lift heavy equipment but we can also make people laugh, and that’s what we plan on doing.” They plan on being in post-production through December so they hope for an early 2016 release date. Working alongside Gotz are Producers, Summer Matthews and Eli Schaefer, first assistant director Jordyn Gregory and co-writer Kate...