A Lima Central Catholic High School alumni has gone from student to teacher as he brings his career knowledge back to his old stomping grounds.
When Tom Flynn, the screenwriter behind the Disney film "Gifted", graduated from LCC in 1973, he had no idea that he would go on to write a movie that would earn $42 million in theaters all around the world. He also would not have dreamed he would be back at LCC holding a master class on his work.
"Surreal and ironic, I mean, the fact that I would come here and teach anything on the grounds of LCC, I wasn't the best student," says Flynn. "It was a gas, it was fun. There were really smart people, really smart questions, and it was fun doing it."
Flynn answered questions about the inner workings of the film industry and the best way for people to get their work out to the public.
"It was cool to listen to him talk about how he is successful in Los Angeles and the industry," says LCC senior Shelby Hawkins. "I learned a lot of about how I can get myself to Los Angeles or any professional areas."
The fact that he is a product of LCC was inspiring for some with doubts about the attainability of their goals.
"I think it's amazing because it's that little speck of hope," says LCC junior Madison Kennedy, who hopes to be novelist one day. "You're in this small town, you don't think you're really gonna get anywhere but then this man comes in and it's like we can actually do something and we can make it somewhere."
And that was really the goal Flynn had for his visit: to show people that they have just as much of a shot to succeed as anyone else.
"Aside from the writing thing is just to believe you can do it," says Flynn. "That's the biggest thing why I wanted to come back here, is to let people know that you don't have to go to Harvard or go to film school in UCLA or NYU to be successful in something as hard to do as show business."
While it was fun, Flynn says he does not plan on teaching a master class again. Right now, he is more preoccupied with his latest work, another Disney film called "Togo and Seppala", which is currently in the early stages of production.
