CollegeBound Initiative Class of 2009 ● Gettysburg College 2013 ● Entrepreneur: Video and Content Producer
My director of college counseling (DCC) and CBI made me feel supported and excited about my college journey. They exposed me to a wide variety of colleges and went the extra mile to ensure that my family and I fully understood the college application process. While a student at Gettysburg College, CBI also provided me with a paid job as a College Coach during the summers. I feel so blessed and fortunate to have gone through this program, it has changed the trajectory of my life.
After graduating from Gettysburg College, I moved to Miami to become a 4th Grade Math Teacher via Teach For America. Upon completion of the program, I moved back home to New York City and continued my educational career as a College Counselor at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, a community-based organization in East New York, Brooklyn.
I feel so blessed and fortunate to have gone through this program, it has changed the trajectory of my life.
During my time as a counselor, I had a caseload of over 200 students and needed to find an effective way to communicate to my program participants. I started creating college counseling-related videos and sharing them via Facebook and Instagram. As a result, student engagement increased and I soon began to create content for the other divisions in the organization such as Youth Family Services, Career & Education, Community Organizing, and many more. That’s when I realized that many organizations needed to create relevant video and photo content for their particular community.
I founded my media company PHE PHILMS LLC in 2017. Since then I have created videos for the New York City Department of Education, GOOGLE, CUNY, Teach For America, SL Network, and many other nonprofits and organizations. I really enjoyed working with alumni on the CBI project and being a part of new initiatives to engage alumni while creating resources for high school students.
Growing up my father was a videographer and as a teenager I’d go with him to gigs as his assistant, and eventually learned how to edit the videos. Now I get to follow my passion for creating content for non-profit and educational organizations so my advice to students is simple: pay attention to what excites you and what you are naturally good at.