Name: Michael C. Busza

Year: Junior

Schools: School of Media and Communication and College of Liberal Arts

Majors: Communications and English

Home town: Springfield, Pa. (Delaware County)

Why I chose Temple: "I always expected I'd go to college in New York. But I came here on a campus tour with my mom and I just fell in love with Temple. I wanted to go somewhere urban, very diverse, with life and buzz and an active LGBT community. I got into a lot of places that I applied to and got a lot of scholarships. In the end, it was between Temple and NYU. It came down to the fact that I got into the Temple Honors Program. The Honors Program is the best place on the face of the planet. It's where I belong. Also, I'm a big interdisciplinary thinker. The communications program at Temple is very broad. Here I could major in communications and take classes in film, broadcasting, journalism, advertising and PR. Out in the real world, you need to have all of the skills. Temple was everything I was looking for."

Recent honor: "I recently won the MarcDavid LGBTQ scholarship. It's for LGBT advocacy and leadership. The thought that my university thought enough about my community to have a scholarship — it's empowering. College is expensive. Without scholarships, I would be really in debt I would not have been able to do the TV projects that I've produced. But it's not about the money. It's the fact that someone's willing to support my academic path and my dream."

Transformative moment: "In the fall of my junior year, I got into 'Producing and Directing,' a once-a-week, four-credit class with Kristine Trever Weatherston. In the class, we produce TV shows. The first day of class we show up and she says, 'By next week, I want you to have a story concept, the first 20 pages of a script, a distribution model, target audience, possible networks, advertisements — and pitch it to the class.' The class started with 20 students. The next week, half of the class had dropped the course, and the other half were scared out of their minds. But I wasn't afraid. I had never been more confident in anything I'd ever done.

"I showed up with the story board for 'One of the Guys,' a sitcom that had been in my mind for a long time. I had a story to tell, and I was ready. I was wrapping post-production of the pilot for another show that I had co-created and co-written, 'Quarter Life Crisis,' so I knew I could do it.

"'One of the Guys' is Temple's first full-length web series. It's a roommate sitcom about three gay roommates who live with a laid-back, open-minded, straight sublettor. It debuted in February. I'm the creator, director and writer.

"I'm a 21-year-old gay man with two straight brothers and a lot of straight guy friends. The relationship between gay and straight men is one that I've lived. It's a relationship that's not seen on television very frequently. It's a relationship that needs to be shared.

"Producing this show has prepared me for the future. A lot of college students learn about film and television production, but here at Temple I haven't just been sitting in classes — I've done it. And I'm not afraid to go out there and do it again."