Adding TV producer to her CV:Bertha Tobias '24
It was the spring of 2022 and Bertha Tobias ’24 felt frustrated. Despite her efforts to find an internship that combined her twin interests in television and entrepreneurship, she had no leads. A conversation with Professor Michael Fortner helped change her thinking.
“He reminded me that Claremont McKenna is about self-authorship,” she recounted, “and that if you want an opportunity that doesn’t exist, you will probably have to create it yourself.”
So, Tobias went to work, creating a proposal for a pilot television series, called Spotlight, which would chronicle stories of young entrepreneurs in Namibia, her home country. She researched the most promising Namibian entrepreneurs and reached out to them to secure interviews. Once all 10 had accepted, she hit “send” on her application for funds from CMC’s expansive Student Internship and Experiences (SIE) program.
To her delight, Tobias found a champion in Ursula Diamond, director of Student Opportunities, which helps distribute the funds. “Ursula could see my commitment and excitement,” Tobias said. She was awarded $5,000 of funding from the Kravis Lab for Social Impact and an additional $2,000 from the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies. That Tobias had limited experience in journalism and none in television production was not a deterrent. Like an entrepreneur, she says, she felt emboldened.
Even so, the funds were just a good first step.
“It’s one thing to be starry-eyed and talking about ideas but it’s a completely different thing when the actual money is on the table,” she shared. Tobias contacted numerous production companies until she had secured a studio that could handle her needs. She then planned a compressed and ambitious shooting schedule—all 10 interviews in one day. That was the only way she could cover the expense of the production, and there was no room for error.
To make sure there wouldn’t be any surprises, she had coffee individually with each of the entrepreneurs prior to the shooting day. “I wanted to make sure to establish some on-screen chemistry first,” she shared.
Her interviewees, all under age 30, ranged from a cosmetics manufacturing scientist to an e-commerce entrepreneur (“essentially the Amazon of Namibia”) to a medical doctor who started a speakers’ bureau of on the continent of Africa, and others in the fields of social enterprise, food, fashion, financial services, and more.
Good content needs an audience, and that was the next prong of Tobias’ challenge.
“I figured I could push myself maybe even a little more,” she said, so she approached the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation and offered her content for free, if they agreed to air it. She shared that they were initially hesitant because she was “young and in school,” but that they finally agreed.
“I’m very passionate about it,” Tobias said. “That really comes through.”
With the first season completed and with a team she’s now assembled, Tobias is working on a second. And she’s raised her sights even higher, with ambitious goals for even better production values, more interviews, and an international audience beyond Namibia.
The CMC junior-turned television interviewer spoke about taking a page from many of the entrepreneurs who shared the highs and lows of their journeys onscreen, with persistence as a key element.
“The best thing I’ve learned from this experience is—if you want something, just ask. Don’t take it personally if someone says no. That just means it’s time to go on to the next person.”
