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Alumni Spotlight: From LCL to Warner Bros.

Posted by Ryan Bredow on Oct 23, 2017 6:06:00 PM

"Coming to LCL is the one thing I am most proud to have been able to do for my boys as a parent." This remarkable endorsement was shared with us by Mr. Scott Behnke, father to Alex (class of 2009) & Bret (class of 2012). We have since followed up with Bret and what the Lord has been doing in his life since graduating from LCL.

IMG_2785.jpegWhat have you been up to?

Life has been quite the adventure lately, but very exciting. After college, I made the move to Los Angeles to try my hand at working in the entertainment industry. I've always loved movies and television, so when thinking about what type of career I wanted to pursue, and what I would be passionate about pursuing every day, I couldn't shake the thought of moving to Los Angeles to get my foot in the door in the entertainment business. I was lucky enough to be offered a job at a small firm called CS+ that performed Rights and Clearances duties for productions. We cleared 3rd party content for shows such as Dancing with the Stars (ABC), Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons (HBO), and a number of other reality/game shows. During my time there, I learned a lot about the intricacies of the industry, and learned about all of the different roles that went into making a show. After 7 months, even though CS+ was a great start for me, I couldn't help but feel like there was a better place for me in the industry. I ended up leaving CS+ to start my hunt for a better fit.

I knew that whatever my next step would be in the industry, I wanted it to be more focused on the finance side of production. After months of searching and working my connections, I was given an amazing opportunity. Warner Bros called me back with an open position in their Production Planning department. Long story short, I interviewed and was offered the job!

I am now a Management Trainee in the Feature Films Division at Warner Bros. I specifically work in the Tax Incentives Department. Our main function is to inform the "decision makers" (executives and producers) about the various tax incentive programs that are available around the world when they are deciding on where they want to shoot. We also work with accountants during the filming of the show to track the projected incentive that we will receive. Many states and countries will offer various kinds of tax incentives to productions if they use their local locations and labor. If you've heard anything about the recent trend of Movies and TV shows filming in Canada, Georgia, or Louisiana (to just name a few), that directly relates to what my department is working on. It's a fantastic fit for the type of work I envisioned myself doing, and I am so excited to be a part of an amazing team and studio at Warner Bros.

 

What brought you to LCL?

My older brother Alex and I grew up going to public school (Kettle Moraine) throughout middle school. I never felt like there was anything wrong with the school I was at, so I was a little surprised when my Dad brought up that Alex was going to go to high school at a new school called Lake Country Lutheran. After Alex started going to LCL, I started to get involved in a few youth camps myself, and one of my favorite things of all time: IMPACT (Individual Muscle, Power, Agility, and Core Training). Even though I was only in middle school, through these activities I started to get to know everybody at the school. The older kids who I never would've approached on my own took a genuine interest in who I was and how I was doing. The teachers and coaches genuinely wanted to know about my background and where I was coming from. I was only a 13 years old at the time, but there was a different feeling I would get when I visited LCL. I could truly feel how genuine everybody was. It really felt like a family.

I started out not understanding why I was leaving Kettle Moraine, to quickly being beyond excited to go start high school at LCL. There is more to LCL than just going through the motions of going to class. The people there want you to grow personally as well. I knew I was going to go to a place where I wasn't going to get lost in the fold, and where everybody genuinely cared about me. And that never once changed during my four years there. 

 

What did you value most about your time as a student at LCL?

The thing that I remember the most about my time at LCL was that I wanted to go to school every day. LCL promotes an environment where you can always be yourself, and there's a place for everybody to fit in. The more I met people after high school, the more I realized that not everybody could say the same thing. Even though school can be a slog anywhere you go, being able to go to LCL every day and spend time my friends and amazing teachers made the grind of the school year that much more tolerable. It's hard to explain that feeling until you experience it yourself, but I know I'm not the only LCL alumni that feels that way.

I've carried that feeling with me since graduating over 5 years ago. Wherever my path takes me in life, I want to feel excited about what I'm pursuing. I still use my time at LCL as a reference point. I have no doubt the environment that LCL breeds helped me develop into who I am today, and I am thankful that I was able to spend so much time growing up in such a great place.

 

How did LCL prepare you for college?

The faculty at LCL has an excellent idea of what college level classes demand. The course work at LCL is well on par with what to expect in entry to mid-level college classes, and teachers do an excellent job of helping students succeed when approaching difficult, new subjects. There is no doubt in my mind that many of the teachers at LCL could also successfully teach at a college level.

With that being said, I think where LCL further excels at preparing kids for college is actually outside of the classroom. While performing well academically is important, it is not the only aspect of college. New students have to balance academics with being on their own for the first time, and the decisions and challenges that come along with that. Because I was so involved in sports and extracurriculars in high school, I had already started to learn how to independently manage my time. It transitioned perfectly to my freshman year of college, when I decided to play football at Concordia University Chicago. I was prepared to manage the time commitments of both school and a college sport, and I was able to earn a 4.0 GPA in my first year. 

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LCL is also a place that constantly challenges you to better yourself. Whether it was in sports or academics, coaches and teachers are always challenging students to improve. After my freshman year of college, a number of occurrences led me to decide that I was done playing football. Knowing that I could now put all of my time into school, I set the goal of transferring to a school I had dreamed of going to while I was growing up: The University of Wisconsin - Madison. After a lot of hard work, I was accepted in as a transfer, and still graduated a semester early with a degree in Personal Finance. The only way that I achieved that goal was with a strong work ethic and challenging myself to achieve something that wasn't going to be easy. I owe a lot of that work ethic to what I learned at LCL, and and the people there that ingrained that mentality in me.

 

Do you have any favorite memories or stories from your time at LCL that you would like to share?

Man...there are too many stories to tell in such a small space! I could go on and on. I think something that can represent how much this school and the people there mean to me is that I just couldn't get away after I graduated. I spent my next two summers coaching IMPACT and helping out with the football program. I voluntarily spent my summer days at LCL because I loved being there so much, and loved working with the people who had once coached and taught me. On top of that, whenever I was home from college and would come back to visit, I would plan to spend about an hour or two making my rounds to just say hi to everybody. Well, that never happened as planned...those two hours would quickly turn into me spending half my day swapping stories and catching up with everybody on how our lives were going. Nobody was ever too busy to catch up. I'd just keep running into one person after the other, and I loved every minute of it.  I realized very quickly after graduating that these weren't just my old teachers I was talking to, but close friends that I had made. Even though I'm off pursuing new goals, I miss everybody and hope you're doing well! Hopefully I can make another one of those visits soon.

 

Is there any advice you would like to offer to the current and future students of LCL?

Get involved in things if you have any interest. Lake Country Lutheran is a very unique place because if you truly have an interest in something, you will never be excluded. There's always room on a team or in a club, and the faculty wants you to get involved. The same can't be said at larger schools. I have a lot of great memories from things that happened during the school day, but the memories that really stick out to me are from time spent playing sports and doing things outside of normal school hours. Playing and going to sporting events, spirit weeks, volunteering, IMPACT, gaming club, going to dances...I have endless stories from those things, and still talk with my LCL friends today. Don't be afraid to be a part of something!

Also, get to know the teachers and the staff. Every one of them cares about you more than just a student they're obligated to teach every day. I can't say this enough: they are some of the best people I have ever met in my life, and I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.

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