OUC Communications Intern Dives into ‘Shark Tank’ Role

To Marklyne Joachim, the hit TV series Shark Tank represents the American Dream. For budding entrepreneurs, the show can turn their nascent products and concepts into overnight, multimillion-dollar success stories. But for an intern working on its post-production team, like Joachim, the reality program could make a dream career in Hollywood come true.

On May 25, the day after completing her yearlong internship as a videographer and writer on OUC’s Communications team, Joachim flew out of Orlando International Airport for Los Angeles. Three days later she showed up for her first day of work on Shark Tank as one of four University of Central Florida (UCF) students selected for the Clay Newbill Hollywood Internship program. A 1982 UCF graduate, Newbill is the executive producer of Shark Tank, the ABC TV reality series that features six celebrity investors, aka sharks, who consider whether to buy into entrepreneurs’ businesses. The Newbill internship is only available to radio-television students in UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication.

The American Dream is more than a cliché to Joachim; it’s an ideal that she has aspired to fulfill since her family, in 2006, emigrated from Haiti to the United States. With Orlando as her new home, she pursued an education that she hoped would open doors to jobs in video production and writing.

Apparently, opportunity came knocking.

Joachim spent her final year at UCF working full time at OUC’s Reliable Plaza as a videographer/writer intern. She graduates in August with bachelor’s degrees in radio and television, and creative writing.

“It’s been very educational as well as entertaining,” she says of her time at OUC. “I’m very appreciative of OUC. People were always willing to help.”

Joachim adds that she believes her OUC experience played a big part in landing the Shark Tank gig. “They wanted a portfolio of my work to review and my work with OUC gave me an advantage.”

Out in L.A., Joachim foresees few chances of meeting the sharks — Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary — during her six-month internship. Her assignments keep her behind the scenes and at a location separate from where Shark Tank is taped.

“I’ll probably only be on set to pick up footage,” she says.

But regardless of a shark encounter, Joachim hopes her internship puts her closer to realizing her American Dream.

“I want to be a script writer and director,” she says. “That’s my ultimate goal in life.”