Life After Moody: Chelsea Berk is one of three Moody graduates in her family and now she’s an account manager at BBDO in New York City. Originally from Scarsdale, NY, Berk received her Communication Studies degree in 2018. She’s applying the communication skills she learned at #TEXASMoody every day in her current role. “Account management is all about communicating with your clients and all different departments across your agency, so I have definitely been using my communication and organization skills. Moody taught me so much about time management and how best to communicate and connect with others. “

She enjoys learning on the job every day but she misses learning in a classroom. “I loved learning all about different types of human relationships and the psychology behind advertising (what I do now). “

Berk's advice for #TEXASMoody students is not to worry if you don’t have a job at graduation and be empathetic at the workplace but her biggest advice for students is not to settle while you’re on the job search and always advocate for yourself. ...

#MoodySpotlight: POLL: Do you watch TSTV in your free time? Our vote - check out Down to Film produced by Amber Duhon! Duhon is a 3rd year Radio-Television-Film student from Corpus Christi, TX.

Her favorite Moody memories are the ones she’s had with TSTV, specifically involving the show Down To Film. Duhon has also been an Orientation Advisor for Moody.

“I have loved being at Moody. I’ve been able to learn so much about media and producing and acting and being on sets. I chose Moody because I wanted to stay in Texas and I’ve always dreamed of going to a huge school with a lot of spirit in a city with great film opportunities.”

She chose to major in RTF because she’s been obsessed with movies and tv for as long as she’s been able to watch them.

“I joined TSTV as a freshman and now the members are like family to me. The world is a really dark place sometimes and I want to be able to take people out of that world, even if it’s just for an hour, and make them feel joy.”

📷: @luis_martinez93 ...

#LonghornFriday: Catherine Serna is a first-year Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences student on the audiology track. Serna is part of UT’s Global Medical Training and UT Austin Student Academy of Audiology.

A fun fact about Serna is when she was 11 she was a drummer in a girl band.

“I’ve chosen Moody, because it is a great place where I can explore my interests and succeed in my major!! As well as my future career and expand my knowledge as a student. What I’m looking forward to here at UT is making new friends and meeting different people! I’m also looking forward to all the events that UT organizes!” ...

For 27 years, Professor Raoul Hernandez covered the Austin music scene as Music Editor for The Austin Chronicle. As an Assistant Professor of Practice at the School of Journalism & Media, he teaches Music Journalism. His father’s from Yucatan, and his mother's from San Antonio. He describes himself as “a music journalist by trade, and one of my specialties is Latin music and soul/R&B, a primarily Black form of art and culture.”

“I was an only child whose parents didn’t let him watch T.V., so the music and theater hours and ballgames and comedy hours and news, sport, and weather on the radio and my stereo doubled as my sibling - the music especially. I also read and wrote in that bedroom, so the writing and music fused into one career path. In other cities, that’s an art beat. Here in Austin, it was politics, so it took a lot of fighting and shouting and sleepless nights 24/7/365 to report the news here in the so-called live music capital of the world. Few jobs in this city can grind you down like that one. Happily, a lifetime of unparalleled art provided a soundtrack to said entrenchment. I saw everything on my bucket list TWICE.”

If he had to choose a favorite moment from his career, it would be “Johnny Cash performing at an infamous Sixth Street punk club called Emo’s as the SXSW keynote in 1994!”

“I identify as Hispanic and am proud of my background because it’s mine and mine alone. I was born in San Francisco and grew up in the East Bay, speaking Spanish fluently and tucking into a Hispanic background: food, friends, and my parents work in Chicano advocacy. I lean towards stories of color and diversity and always have.” ...

Life After Moody: Washington, D.C. native Nora Bess is a marketing coordinator for HBO, where she coordinates creative development and execution of marketing campaigns for shows such as @InsecureHBO, @Watchmen, and Mare of Easttown among others. Nora graduated from #TEXASMoody with degrees in @utexasrtf and Plan II Honors. Her @utexasrtf classes on the Hollywood business gave her an inside look at the entertainment industry. “Classes like that gave me a holistic look at the industry and prepared me to be adaptable with industry changes,” said Bess.

Career development experiences such as the NBCU Page Program and the IRTS Fellowship Program gave Nora a breadth of experiences that led her to her current role at HBO. Her #TEXASMoody and Plan II education taught her to look at professional situations from multiple angles and anticipate change in an industry where audiences are consuming an ever-growing amount of content in rapidly evolving ways.

She encourages students thinking about their careers to look for their dream boss rather than their dream company. “You want to work for someone who you’ll get along with and is invested in your growth. Be on the lookout for good people who will support your early in your career and will help you develop the skills that you want.” ...

#MoodySpotlight: Meet Greg Phea, a senior Corporate Communication major from Cedar Park, TX. This past summer, Greg worked as a Legal Intern at Oracle in their copyrights and trademarks group.

Phea is a member of @utcommcouncil, @lph.moody, and @texas_onyx.

“I’ve had many different educational interests, as reflected by my few major changes within Moody. Fortunately, with every decision I made, I had supportive faculty like Dr. Upshaw, Love, and Junker guiding me and helping me gradually narrow down my interests to a passion for law, communications, and cultural product design regulation. My senior thesis is now focused on legal case disparities and intellectual property rights in contemporary African & Black fashion design. I chose this subject because it provided me with an opportunity to use my comm studies lens to tell a story deeply personal to me and to reshape the narrative around how traditional forms of cultural knowledge are delegitimized. It’s really funny how things came together.”

📷: Dr. @kerikstephens ...

Jose Puente is a junior Political Communication major and a proud Chicano. Puente is a leader on campus through his involvement as a Transfer Interest Group Mentor, Communication Council Member and Transfer Representative in Student Government.

He sees this month as a time to “celebrate all of the different backgrounds in Hispanic culture because Hispanic culture is not just a singular thing. It's a broad spectrum of different people, types of music, foods, traditions, celebrations, etc. ”

Representation is an important part of why Puente chose to get involved on campus. When he noticed a lack of representation in some organizations, he took on roles to make an impact. “There's a large population of first-gen individuals but specifically someone who was like me, first-gen, low-income, queer, Latino, I didn't really see any of that. So the reason why I applied to all these orgs that advocate for students, like @utcommcouncil and student government assembly, was so I could be what I needed when growing up.”

Something important he wants people to know is that Hispanics are more than just a stereotype. “There isn't just one type of Hispanic like you may see on TV or in the media. We’re proud of who we are. We deserve a seat at the table. We’re hard-working."

Puente’s heritage is essential to him and helped him in becoming who he is today.

“I’m very proud to be Latino, or Mexican American, because of my family and knowing how hard they fought to be who they are and how proud they are to come from where they come from. Growing up, I was surrounded by mainly Latina women. Especially in the early 2000s, they were at a point of oppression. They taught me to be proud of who I was, even though I was a young boy and Mexican American. They taught me not to change. And to be proud of who I am. That I’m meant to be here.” ...