Ian Juarez EDINBURG – Last Tuesday, the UTRGV Department of Communication held its semesterly COMM-version event to inform and inspire students from all majors about what benefits and programs the department offers.
In this year’s COMM-versation, the department brought Ray Villarreal, an in-arena announcer and UT Austin Alumni from San Antonio, who is known for announcing Monster Jam, F1, the San Antonio Spurs and UT Football and Basketball.
During the event, Villarreal spoke to those students about his journey and background, showing how he made it to center stage and navigated rejection and hardship.
“My biggest thing was telling people like, failures are going to come with whatever you do within this job, right,” Villarreal said. “Just keep taking those swings and put yourself in those opportunities to, to network and know people. Right? So whether you get it the first time or not, at least you’re putting yourself out into the world and people are knowing who you are.”
Alyssa Cerroni, senior Communication Studies lecturer, explained how students of all majors are welcome to attend the event, as communication serves to assist students in building skills for future careers.
“Our program pairs really well with other majors and minors. So, there’s a class within our program that is for you no matter what major you’re pursuing,” Cerroni said. “If they’re not going to major in communication, we’ll talk to them about our minor paths. And then also we’ll talk about course offerings. So sometimes we get students from engineering, and we’ll tell them about courses that they can take with us that will pair well with their major.”
Villarreal explained the impact of networking and social media on broadcasting and communications and how it can lead to alternate paths.
“I believe that as long as you’re able to create, opportunities and be able to film stuff like social media is such a beautiful thing, right? So if you’re going out to events, if you’re going to sporting events, if you’re covering things like that and able to build a reel and criteria, for yourself that you can show to clients, I think that it’s, the main part of it, you know?” Villarreal said “Pursuing this job is going to come with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of no’s. But if you keep at it and put yourself in position to get those, opportunities are going to come.”
To learn more about the Department of Communication, visit them in person in Edinburg at ELABS 165 or Brownsville at BMAIN 1.210A or via phone at 956-665-3583 for Edinburg or 956-882-8297 for Brownsville.
Find the department’s social media on Instagram @utrgv.commdpt or on Facebook at UTRGV Department of Communication.
