Valedictorian candidate Milo Poon decides to attend Santa Monica College and to study film. 
Lily CainOnline EditorOne of 18 valedictorian candidates, senior Milo Poon-Fear went against the norm and decided not to apply to colleges this year. Despite his 4.0 GPA and multiple honors and AP classes, he chose to take a gap semester and then continue his education at Santa Monica College (SMC).Poon-Fear says his decision is based on cost and location. A community college is cheaper than any four-year university and at SMC he is still centered in Los Angeles, which he says is perfect for his intended career: film.“It was definitely within the past year or so that I really decided what I wanted to do, which is film, so I’ve really been working a lot on that,” Poon- Fear said.Poon-Fear made some videos while in middle school and both his parents are involved in filmmaking (his mother works for a producer and his father was an actor), so in high school he decided to pursue his interest in film. He took the ROP Film and Video Level I sophomore class and Level II first semester junior year and all of senior year. It was during his second semester of junior year when he wasn’t in the class that he realized his passion for cinematography.“The APs were actually the reason I dropped film second semester of [junior] year,” Poon-Fear said. “I missed a couple of projects that I could’ve done.”Despite his missed semester, Poon-Fear created several films with the class, including three for the Samohi Film Festival. During sophomore year, he made “Work It (Animal Version)” and during senior year he created both “Student Trafficking” with junior Tejas Potynski and “Survival of the Fittest.”Even when he realized he wanted to go into film, Poon-Fear stayed on the honor track. He said he had personal motivation for maintaining his high GPA.“I was an average honor student getting straight A’s freshman and sophomore year and junior year I thought I should still be getting A’s and if I wasn’t getting A’s I wasn’t doing my best,” Poon-Fear said. “It wasn’t for college; it was for doing well.”However, he now has the time to take advantage of other opportunities. He will soon start an unpaid internship with a Hollywood producer to gain experience in pre-production.“I want to work there, see where that takes me,” Poon-Fear said. “I want to mostly just make films to get more of the work experience.”During his gap semester and semester at SMC, Poon-Fear hopes to gain work experience and possibly earn an associates degree in film studies.“I want to get the general education classes out of the way to go to maybe UCLA and get a bachelors degree, but mostly I’m keeping my options open,” Poon-Fear said.In addition, Poon-Fear prefers learning on his own and hopes to be able to do a few projects during his time at SMC. He says he has learned a lot from the film classes at Samo and he does not believe he needs to go to a film school yet, choosing instead to take this time to relax.“[Film schools are] still out there. I don’t regret not applying because it really allowed me to enjoy senior year,” Poon-Fear said.Poon-Fear believes he will attend a film school after his time at SMC, but he says that in the meantime he wants to get work experience, travel and learn how to drive.“Honestly, I’m taking a risk, but I think I have connections,” Poon-Fear said. “I have an internship with a producer in Hollywood and I have friends at film schools all over the place so it’ll work out.”lcain@thesamohi.com
