Growing up in South Gate, California, Laura Rivas knew she wanted to work in the entertainment industry. In college at Cal State Northridge, she majored in television and cinema arts, learning basic video editing and production skills. But it wasn’t until after Rivas had graduated, and her sister introduced her to PromaxBDA’s Promo Pathway Program, that Rivas found her calling.

The first accredited program of its kind in the US, Promo Pathway trains young creative to write, produce and edit on-air promotions, offering extensive instruction in short-form writing, creative execution, and video editing and production. “I had some skills before coming to Promo Pathway,” Rivas told Brief, but the program enhanced them and honed them “for a more specific niche of job.” Additionally, Promo Pathway works hard to ensure its students’ new skills find real-word application through internships and mentorships. For Rivas, who had always loved television but never realized there was a possible career in the promotion side of it, that rare opportunity combination changed her life.

During the summer months of Promo Pathway’s year-long program, Rivas interviewed for an internship in the custom content marketing department at NBC. “It took almost a month for them to get back to me,” she said. “Five of us from [Promo Pathway] were interviewed, and I got the call… it was amazing to get that phone call.”

Rivas would soon understand why competition for the position was so fierce. In addition to bringing her into weekly face-to-face contact with a Big Four network’s top marketing personnel, it plunged her directly into the nut and bolts act of making promo. After a month of assisting with consent forms on shoots, digitzing footage, and creating electronic press kits, Rivas was offered the chance to create her own promo, for the launch of Season 2 of “Chicago Fire.” Intersplicing footage of real-life fans expressing their love of the show with rousing moments from Season 1, Rivas selected music for the spot and edited it with guidance from her creative director as well as NBC’s VP of custom content marketing, TJ Johnson. The resulting clip appeared as an exclusive on TVGuide.com and NBC extended Rivas’ internship.

Rivas’ game-changing moment in promo was yet to come. Throughout her time at NBC, she had been hinting to her mentors that “Parks and Recreation” was one of her favorite shows. As her internship neared its conclusion, they rewarded her good work with an offer to assist producer Peggy Hodge on the promo for the hit comedy’s 100th episode (airing this Thursday at 8:30 p.m.), meaning she would get to go on-set and meet the cast. Then, at the last minute, they sweetened the deal.

“TJ Johnson said, ‘Oh, now you’re going to be producing,” Rivas remembered. “You’re going to do everything. You’re going to ask [the ‘Parks and Recreation’] cast questions and you’ll see from beginning to end the creation of the promo.”

And so it was that Promo Pathway student Laura Rivas found herself, following the wrap of the 100th episode of “Parks and Recreation,” interviewing some of her comedy heroes, including stars Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt.

“All the cast members were great,” Rivas said. “They did some improv on me. They knew it was my first interview ever, so they were playing different characters. Aubrey Plaza pretended Poehler was her manager and that she didn’t get paid enough… It was really interesting and I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking to Amy Poehler.’”

Fortunately, Rivas was not too starstruck to edit her interview footage into the NBC.com promo posted below, which honors the show’s impressive achievement with wit and grace.

Having graduated from Promo Pathway last September, and with her NBC internship complete, Rivas is now working on freelance editing projects and looking for an opportunity to get on staff with a network’s promo team. Reflecting on her Promo Pathway experience, she told Brief that the program taught her the essential skill of “narrowing down my story to target an audience” and that “the ability to network with other people was great. When Promo Pathway [brought] speakers [into class] from agencies and networks, it was just amazing to hear their stories and how they came to be the head of their business. That was really valuable, to see how people from all walks of life were able to create their own careers.”

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