A University of Wisconsin alumni group, Hollywood Badgers, is helping students and graduates break into the entertainment industry.

Organized by a small group of UW alumni working in Los Angeles, the Hollywood Badgers' mission is to provide a support network of Wisconsin students in an industry dominated by California graduates.

"Most of the people who are UW graduates aren't from California, so they come out to L.A. with no connections," Lesley Feinstein, a 2003 UW graduate and current Los Angeles talent agency coordinator, said.

Feinstein, who co-founded the Hollywood Badgers with fellow alum Mary Rohlich, said once she had settled in Los Angeles, she was caught off-guard by the competitiveness of the job market.

"We were really shocked. We were just upset there was no way to connect with them," she said. "We [had fewer] connections because no one had gotten together and formed a group like this."

To provide a network for UW graduates aspiring to entertainment jobs in Los Angeles, Rohlich and Feinstein teamed up with a handful of other alumni and created the website, Hollywoodbadgers.com.

"As soon as we got the website up, it really took off," Rohlich said.

The Hollywood Badgers now boasts 54 active members.

As the Hollywood Badgers gained members, the university began to take notice and soon contacted the group about combining its services with the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

"They're not a typical alumni chapter," WAA Senior Director of Campus Relations Becci Menghini said. "They got started on their own."

Menghini said graduates need networks such as Hollywood Badgers to find jobs that are right for them, saying that, on average, a college graduate will change careers eight times within the first 10 years out of college.

Rohlich said she is proud of her UW heritage, but her education at the university did not fully prepare her for the business end of the industry.

"The Comm. Arts Department at UW is about theory; it's not about Hollywood," she said. "When I came out here, there were jobs that I had no idea were available."

Feinstein stressed the need for aspiring students to network in Los Angeles before graduating, adding that besides themselves, there is little support for UW graduates.

"How many people do you see on the street in Los Angeles from Wisconsin? Not too many," she said. "It sucks to see [University of Southern California] and [University of California-Los Angeles] kids have these connections because they went to school in the same city they grew up in."

To help current UW undergrads get a head start in the Hollywood-entertainment industry, Rohlich, Feinstein and others will hold an informative seminar Friday in Vilas Hall.

"We're looking for everybody, and we're looking for kids who are on campus … to come out and join," Feinstein said. "We're going to tell them everything they [need] to know. That's our purpose."