One UNC graduate is living out his dream – on his way to become an animator for children’s shows. Recently, he finished a summer fellowship at the same place that runs the Emmys, but it’s been a long road leading up to this point.
Earlier this year, DeCarlos Hickson was selected for the Television Academy Foundation’s prestigious 2020 Summer Fellows program.
DeCarlos Hickson and other UNC-Chapel Hill scholarship recipients posed for portraits at the Old Well on October 9, 2019 in Chapel Hill, NC (Photo by Jeyhoun Allebaugh/UNC-Chapel Hill).
Normally, this summer-long program provides 50 paid internships, at top Hollywood studios and production companies, to college students nationwide. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation had to completely re-imagine its programs.
Hickson, a 2020 UNC graduate, majored in Communications, Technology and Media Production with a minor in Writing for the Screen and Stage. His fellowship concentration was development for children’s programming.
While the foundation had to quickly re-imagine its program, Hickson thought they did a great job transitioning to an online format. This was something he was previously very concerned about this spring, as graduation loomed around the corner and the coronavirus took center stage.
“Originally when everything started going kind of crazy, I didn’t know if they were still going to be able to do it,” Hickson said. “I was just hoping and hoping that it would still happen. Then they came up with the fellowship – and they came up with it reasonably quickly – and it was just so thorough. They had so many professionals for us to talk to that helped us along the way. I think they did an amazing job.”
For each of the 50 selected students, the foundation’s program included virtual one-on-one visits with professionals in their field of study, online panels with leaders in the television industry, and customized seminars covering personal brand building and navigating the job market ahead.
Hickson said all this help with resumes, cover letters and elevator pitches was exactly what he needed as he prepares to enter the job market post-graduation – and now even more so in a post-pandemic world. For him, this fellowship was a big step forward in making his dreams come true – but this dream didn’t come to fruition overnight.
Hickson had initially applied for this internship at the end of 2018, per a suggestion from one of his UNC professor’s, but unfortunately didn’t make the cut. However, after completely redoing his portfolio, he was accepted in 2019 during his final year of undergrad.
“For me, because I was about to graduate, and then I find out about it in March, it was like a dream come true,” Hickson said. “That validation of ‘am I good enough?’ and ‘do I have what it takes?’ just to know that the same people who vote for who gets the Emmys thought that I was good enough to get into this program. It was an unbelievable thing.”
Ever since he was a kid, Hickson said he has always been passionate about animation and visual storytelling. This passion was, in a way, cultivated by a disability that was at one point very limiting.
Hickson was born with a brachial plexus injury in his right shoulder. This injury made his right arm almost completely unusable when he was young – making extracurriculars like sports out of the question. While Hickson has since overcome this obstacle, teaching himself how to use his right arm over the years, this disability did help to shape some the passion for drawing that he exhibits today.
“I could do whatever I wanted to do with art,” Hickson said. “I could build worlds and I could do anything with art and so that’s what really drew me into it.”
As he got older, Hickson’s love for storytelling grew – and while UNC didn’t have an animation program, they did have film and writing for the screen and stage. It was at UNC where he was able to emulate the kind of programs you might find in California – where the animation industry thrives.
Yet, even now, as a college graduate, Hickson has not forgotten what led him down this path in the first place. He said he still draws inspiration from some of the shows he watched growing up, when he first saw characters he could relate to.
“For me, some things that inspired me – I really love ‘The Proud Family,’” Hickson said. “It was the first time I had ever seen characters that looked like me in a program. I know ‘Hey Arnold’ was another big one for me – and those types of cartoons – it was something I could identify with – the stories that were being told there. As a kid, it helped me out seeing those kinds of things – so it’s something I want to be able to do for other kids.”
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