The University of Idaho Argonaut

He moved to Idaho in the summer of 2004, leaving his Hollywood career behind to focus on family and start a new chapter in his life.

Now a graduate student studying counseling and psychology at the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene, David Ascher was an assistant director for famous movies such as “Lethal Weapon 4” and “Con Air.”
Ascher and his wife are from southern California and Hawaii, but left to follow her family who had moved from Hawaii to Idaho.

Now Ascher is working toward his master’s degree.
“When my wife and I got married we decided we didn’t want to spend as much time in Los Angeles because it just wasn’t home to us,” he said. “I thought that if I was good with contacts and had the experience I could live elsewhere and do one or two big movies a year, but I learned that left me with two options.”

His two options were to, one, have a family and have that be his number one priority, or two, have a family and work, leaving work as his number one priority.

“I learned that when trying to do both, marriages don’t last, and I can’t guarantee that I’m going to make it to my kid’s piano recital, or to their gymnastics event,” Ascher said. “So I took a leap of faith and moved to Hawaii with my family and now we’re here.”

While it has been several years since the Ascher family moved out of California, there are some things he said he misses.

“It was a very intense experience,” he said. “Sometimes I miss that feeling of being on a project that has meaning, and feeling that excitement and accomplishment.”

Now working on his way to be a counselor, Ascher has new excitements and accomplishments to look forward to.

“This career path is rewarding and demanding, but it is also flexible at the same time,” Ascher said. “I’m not working a nine to five job, whereas in Hollywood I would work 16 hour days. I can still have a family and be a part of it.”

Sachin Jain, an assistant professor in the counseling and school psychology program at the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene campus met Ascher last August when he was a graduate student in his group counseling course.

“I am a lover of movies and I own around 3000 movies, so I enjoy learning from his experiences in Hollywood,” Jain said.

Jain said he also likes Ascher’s openness to learning, and that he sees him teaching in the future.
“I can see him teaching as a professor in counseling and education, and enhancing research in the field,” Jain said.

This past winter Jain and Ascher traveled to Juanpur, India for two weeks to attend the International Conference in Applied Psychology at Purvanchal University.

There, they attended various presentations and workshops, and Ascher had the opportunity to meet students in India who are studying the same thing he is.

“I remember we visited a two room shack of a schoolhouse, and I saw these kids that would normally be working in school getting an education,” Ascher said, “and even with their lack of supplies, I saw how desperate the country is to provide an education for these children. I learned a lot.”
Jain said that overall, the trip to India went very well.

“We presented papers at the International Conference on Applied Psychology and it was very well received,” Jain said. “We were later invited for presentation at the Aligarh Muslim University.”

Jain said that the experiences they had in India will help Ascher in the future by creating more networking opportunities, as well as more motivation for him on his way towards earning his PhD.

Ascher said he had originally planned to stop his schooling when he earned his master’s degree and be a counselor at a community college or four-year college and also teach a class or two, but since learning from Jain he has changed his plan.

“After last year and learning under Jain’s mentorship, I want to move on and teach classes like him,” Ascher said.

Jain said that they are now working on a paper on the role of counseling in Hollywood that will be ready for submission to the College Student Journal this summer.

Ascher has been applying to different PhD programs at the University of Wyoming, the University of Maryland and the University of Central Florida.

“We’re not afraid to move,” he said. “We’ve done it before.”