BATON ROUGE - Walking through Southern University's campus with music major Michael Foster means being greeted by numerous smiles and quite a few requests from passing faculty and staff.

They frequently pause in stride to give Foster a warm smile and ask if he'll help them with an upcoming project they've got in the works. Every request is met with an eager, "Yes."

This is a reflection of the soft-spoken sophomore's personality: warm and friendly, but driven to succeed. That same drive is what led Foster to begin playing the drums at only 3 years old and to open his own production company when he was in middle school.

Now, he has captured the attention of Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures of Los Angeles has invited Foster to participate in an eight-week summer internship program. The sophomore says he was shocked when he found out he'd been chosen.

"I was just frozen in that moment, and then when they put that paper in my hand... It hit me at once. This is actually happening. The position I will have will be in post-production. And I'll be helping, on a small percentage, with the movies that they're working on."

He says what he looks forward to most is going all the way to California and being on sets in Hollywood.

Though the internship will be challenging, the Southern student says he's up for the task.

"Being able to see my dreams and everything right in front of me, that's going to be amazing," he said.

The internship was made possible by the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program's (EICOP) "HBCU in LA" program.