Future marketer shares why STC was top choice

By pursuing a career in Marketing and Public Relations (PR), Edgar Serna says he is following a dream he has held since childhood.

An avid collector of movie art in his younger years, Edgar says he would contact video stores for their old merchandise and props. Intrigued by the creative element as well as the opportunity to meet new people, it set in motion his career choice once he entered college.

“PR is always something that has stood out for me,” he said. “I enjoy getting to know people, and I loved collecting movie posters from the stores. They would take them down and I would ask for my favorite ones, whichever ones stood out to me at the time. So when I got older it just seemed like the perfect fit.

“PR and advertising is just this very broad career choice, and for me it opened up all these different doors and all these different avenues that I could take,” he said.

Edgar says faculty at South Texas College guided him through his initial career choices and eventually through the transfer process to a university once he completed his degree.

He said he benefitted from the college with its affordability and flexible courses, but it was the opportunity to transfer, and STC’s emphasis on “stackable credentials” that enabled him to move on to the next phase in his educational journey.

“I think STC gives you the foundation to build on yourself, to build on your education, to build on your future and to build on your career path,” Edgar said. “Something that I've definitely taken from STC is that it gives you the foundation to start your journey really.”

STC provides opportunities for students to earn credentials in order to form a pathway toward educational attainment. These credentials then accumulate over time in order to build a student’s qualifications and help them move along a career pathway by allowing them to earn a college degree.

In Edgar’s case, he studied Mass Communication with an emphasis on advertising and public relations at STC from 2014 to 2016. He then transferred to UTRGV to pursue his bachelor degree in Mass Communication.

When he began at STC, Edgar said he was initially working in a retail setting and paying for school out of pocket. Attending classes at STC enabled him to save significant amounts of money as he began to lay the foundation for his career though internships.

“When I was going to school here at STC, I was working in retail and I was paying for school out of pocket, and then I thought to myself that I was basically throwing my money away if wasn’t putting my education to use,” Edgar said. “So then I took a career path, a change in my career path, and I set out to do something in public relations or marketing

As he began to prepare for a career in PR and Marketing, Edgar said he took an internship at State Farm Arena. When that internship was finished, he then landed a paying job with Pronto Insurance as their social media manager.

Fast-forward two years later, Edgar is currently employed by Desperado Harley Davidson as the company’s marketing coordinator. When it comes to future plans, Edgar says he intends to complete his masters degree and would love to eventually establish his own digital marketing firm.

“I've been in the field for two years now. It's something I really enjoy, and I know that I chose the right degree to study,” he said.

Edgar has come a long way from his days collecting movie posters. He says his experience has enabled him to turn a simple dream into a budding career.

“In the future, I see myself bringing everything that I've learned back to my hometown and help our community expand as much as possible,” he said. “I want to give a shout out to my speech teacher at STC Elizabeth Hilpert. She taught me so much when it came to public speaking, and that played a huge part in my success throughout my college career.”