Trilina Mai making her way to Pixar

When Trilina Mai began her college career as an animation major, she had to lug around a giant canvas and her full portfolio, trying to prove to her family that art was a respected major while being unsure herself if she would be able to find a career in her field.

“It was a little weird the first few years, because you start carrying all this junk on you,” Mai said. “Like portfolios, canvases and stuff and [my family] was like, ‘Why are you carrying all that?’ I can’t help it, I have to!”

Two years later, the 22-year-old is one of 12 students invited to the Pixar Animation Internship this summer, as announced last week. The program was open to colleges and art schools worldwide and received thousands of applicants.

The internship is a 12-week intensive program that invites students to the studio in Emeryville, California to work side-by-side with animators in order to create a polished reel by the end of their stay.

“It definitely is a self-esteem booster,” Mai said. “If anything, getting into this program means that I definitely do have a chance of being successful in the world of animation.”

This feeling of confidence comes after many years of hard work and proving herself to her professors, her peers and her parents. Coming from a Vietnamese and Chinese family, Mai felt the pressure as a first generation student and the eldest sibling to show that pursuing a career in the arts was both feasible and realistic.

“Being first generation here, there’s this huge focus on being educated…and picking a career that is a lot safer in terms of financial sustainability,” Mai said. “So there definitely [were] times I’ve had in high school, where I wasn’t so sure about being an art major.

“But whatever I did, even when I went away from it, drawing and art always came back and it’s something that I always connected to, no matter how far I strayed away from it.”

Now Mai is sure where she stands both with her family and as an artist. After years of lugging around portfolios and canvases and spending hours everyday in the animation lab, she has the recognition of making a name for herself in one of the top animation programs in the nation.

More than making a name for herself, Mai is also putting Cal State Long Beach on the map as a respected animation program as the second student to be accepted into Pixar’s internship in the past two years.

“Trilina came to my door last week with tears in my eyes [and told me] that she made it,” said Aubry Mintz, one of Mai’s animation professors. “It just dawned on me that this solidifies we’re doing the right thing here. It lets [other students] know that it’s possible….it seems like such a far away dream for some of them, so when two of them make it, this level of reality sets in.”

The culture of belonging to a respected animation program has created a more supportive and hopeful environment in the arts department. Email chains with congratulations for Mai have been spread around faculty and the whiteboard in the animation lab is a canvas of drawings and best wishes from peers.

While Mai is embracing her role as an inspiration for her peers, she is already looking to the future and toward a larger, more personal audience.

“I want to be an inspiration to those who are minority race, like Asian-American, just to open up their minds to pursue art,” Mai said. “Pursue animation, pursue film, pursue things that allow you to be creative. It’s okay to be an art major, it’s okay to not be a stereotype and fall into the flow with everyone else.”

Sitting just outside the University Art Store where Mai’s peers buy supplies for their classes, she begins describing her trip to the Pixar Animation Studio she took over the summer. She recounts the “Monsters Inc.” and “Inside Out” statues and various artwork she passed by, her future taking shape as her excitement grows.

“Art is freeing, it’s so freeing,” Mai said. “To be able to work hard on something, obviously that you stress about, but at the same time, at the end of the day you’re just satisfied with your existence and doing it. To know that you’re a part of a bigger picture that can inspire other people, and speak things that may not be easily said face-to-face or with words is so profound.”