BOLD Welcomes Back Alumni in Honor of PAW Week!
To celebrate FIU’s 10th anniversary of Panther Alumni Week, BOLD held their annual PAW Panel on Tuesday, February 7th, featuring four alumni with similar yet varying backgrounds and their journeys within their professional paths. This panel was open to all FIU students. Panther Alumni Week serves as a way to honor graduates for their achievements and to create a networking opportunity with current students. This year, the agency had the honor of hosting BOLD alumni who were on the same executive board together as they shared their stories and advice to students.
Carlos Ortiz is currently a Public Relations Specialist at Fever US. Within this job, all his days look different and depend on what he is currently working on. It can involve press releases, and getting placements within the media. Prior to graduating and landing the job he has now, Ortiz first joined BOLD in the Spring of 2019. His starting role within the agency was being a Publicist for a radio station. Shortly after, Carlos Ortiz moved on to be the Director of Operations and eventually BOLD President. His time within the organization offered him some valuable skills. A main one that Ortiz took away was project management and client relations. After graduating, Carlos Ortiz went on to complete his masters degree online with Johns Hopkins University and graduated in December of 2022.
Maria Duque is working at Havas Media as a Connections Planner which involves planning and launching campaigns for clients, as well as handling budgets. Duque first joined BOLD in the Fall of 2019 and started off as a Publicist for the FIU Public Policy and Administration account and moved on to being an Account Executive. Afterwards, she became the Director of Accounts for the remainder of that year. Maria Duque credits BOLD for giving her the opportunity of learning about MAIP since that is how she became an intern at her current company. During her position as Director of Accounts, Duque learned a lot of valuable skills from BOLD, one of them being that she learned how to communicate with clients. After graduating, Duque went straight into her job remotely and has seen it as a time where she was able to gain confidence in her role. She believes that it helped her with personal development and advised students to take some time after graduating if they can.
Juan Hernandez is the Co-Founder of Button Up Media. His day-to-day life can look quite unconventional as this is his own company. One day, Hernandez can find himself editing videos for his clients and the next he will be creating content for them. There can also be times where he is out completing business endeavors. Out of all the alumni at the PAW Panel, he was the last to join BOLD. He learned about the organization through members going to his class and presenting about it. During Fall of 2020, Hernandez decided to give it a shot and joined as a member. The following semester, he chose to apply to be the Creative Director of Digital and got the role! During that role, Juan learned a lot about leading teams and how to best structure projects.
Chris Abinader is currently a Junior Designer for Foodie Tribe. As a Junior Designer, Abinader creates Tik Toks about 80% of the time. For these videos, he makes different kinds of food. This is a skill he learned throughout his role as he wasn’t the biggest cook prior. Within BOLD, he first joined as a creative team member during a summer. The semester following, he was worked up to Creative Director of Design. Throughout his time at BOLD, Abinader learned how to not take work personally. As a creative, there will be times when their vision differs from the client’s. Post-graduation, Chris Abinader mentioned feeling lost as he didn’t have a job lined up. However, looking back he recommends that people enjoy that in-between stage of life.
All in all, the students were able to learn a lot of valuable insight from these four BOLD alumni. The Q&A style allowed them to dive into their personal and career journeys to highlight the successes and places of struggles. BOLD will continue to support past and future alumni who uphold the agency’s values throughout their lives.
Click here to connect with Carlos, Maria, Juan, and Chris!
BOLD is a student-run strategic communications agency at Florida International University. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Jefrany D’catry, Director of Public Relations