The following is MBA student Ami Higuchi’s firsthand account of leading the Wharton Media & Entertainment (M&E) Club’s career treks over the course of two years — and what she found along the way.
I grew up in five different countries. Every new place meant a new school, a new language, a new way of fitting in. But no matter where I landed, the TV was always on. Movies and shows were the first common language I found with people who were strangers to me. Entertainment wasn’t just something I enjoyed; it was how I understood the world, and how the world understood me. It was the infrastructure for belonging.
That’s why, when I arrived at Wharton, joining the Media & Entertainment (M&E) Club felt natural. Before Wharton, I had worked in banking, then pivoted into the M&E industry. I wanted to be in the room where decisions are made and to help others get there, too.
Over two years, I led the Club’s career treks — one to New York each fall and one to Los Angeles each spring. Two cities, two very different corners of the industry. And I learned that the treks are much more than just company visits.
The Trek That Changed My Own Career
During my first year, I co-led our LA trek with Tyler Kidd, WG’25, including a visit to Crunchyroll, Sony’s anime-focused streaming platform. After I asked an edgy question during the Q&A, a panelist pulled me aside, exchanged contact information, and later referred me to the strategy team — the exact role I was targeting. That connection led to my summer internship and now, a year later, I’m returning full-time. I hadn’t planned for the trek to change my own trajectory, and a lot of it was luck. But what I took from that experience is that, in this industry, getting your face in front of the right people matters. In my planning process for this year’s LA trek, I was motivated to build the best possible opportunity for students to get real exposure to both the companies and the people making decisions within them.
Building Opportunities for Others
This year, I co-led both treks alongside Sam Flemming, WG’27, and Gayatri Sriram, WG’27. Planning treks at Wharton means juggling logistics, a ton of cold outreach, and coordination — all alongside recruiting, coursework, and everything else the MBA throws at you. Sam and Gayatri, my dream team, handled all of it with positive energy and genuine care.
During our fall trek to New York, we visited Spotify, YouTube, Fanatics, and Paramount — a deliberate mix covering music, user-generated content, sports collectibles, and streaming. For the first time, we co-hosted a happy hour with the M&E clubs from New York University and Columbia Business School, and invited alumni from each school. It brought together a cross-school, cross-perspective group into one room full of people who chose this industry for their own reasons.
The spring LA trek was even more memorable. We put together a three-day agenda across ten companies: Crunchyroll, Riot Games, Sony Pictures, Jaded, Netflix, CAA, Warner Brothers, Westbrook, Death Row Records, and Hoorae. The speaker lineup ranged from entrepreneurs to five C-level executives, and from recent graduates to long-tenured alumni. With around 10 participants from Wharton, every session became a real conversation: discussion-based, open, and personal in a way that larger groups rarely allow.
What the Executives Actually Said
I expected to hear about strategy and growth — and we did. AI came up everywhere, as did questions about where the next generation of content and audiences is headed. But what stayed with me was something different. When we asked the executives how they got to where they are today, almost no one had a linear path.
One executive at Netflix talked about leaving consulting to become a musician. When that chapter closed, she went to Wharton and found her way to where she is now. The CFO of Riot Games had been running a hedge fund before a side consulting project for Riot turned into something he couldn’t walk away from (partly for the work, and partly because he genuinely loves League of Legends).
Every person had their own story. But across all of them, the common thread wasn’t pedigree or planning, it was passion and community. These are people who love content, love games, and love the idea that what they build moves people emotionally. That’s what carried them through the pivots in their careers. And it was their networks — the communities they built along the way — that opened the doors.
The Part That Lasts
M&E Club treks are framed as professional development, and they are. But the moments I’ll carry with me aren’t the strategies or the conference rooms. They’re the dinners after. The karaoke. The conversations about where we all want to be in five years and what we’re excited about. The participants who flew out, showed up, and brought their full selves to every stop — they made the treks what they were.
Entertainment, at its core, is about connection and community. It’s what drew me to this industry as a kid moving between countries, looking for a common language. Building these treks was, in a small way, the same thing: creating a space where people could find each other, share something real, and leave better prepared for what comes next.
To everyone who came out: Thank you! And to Sam and Gayatri: Truly, truly, thank you. We made something wonderful, and the community we built will last well beyond it.
By Ami Higuchi, WG’26
Posted: May 18, 2026
