Guest Blog Post - Kevin Rawls, Public Relations Senior, Texas State University-San Marcos

Hello, fellow film junkies and bloggers!

This is Kevin Rawls checking in for day #2 of job shadowing at Austin Film Festival. Before I get started on my little rant, let me begin by giving you a little of my background.

I am a 22-year-old senior at Texas State University-San Marcos majoring in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and my minor is Sociology. It’s been a long, tumultuous five years in college, but I am glad to finally say I’ll be graduating this May! That is to say if everything goes well and they don’t magically manifest 12 more hours that I need to take. I was born in Yuma, Arizona, but I’ve done most of my growing up in Cedar Park, right here in Austin.

I chose Public Relations as my major because I love to interact and meet new people on a daily basis. The ability to communicate with others effectively is a priceless trait that others take for granted, and getting the opportunity to do that for the rest of my life is something I look forward to. My focus is on the sports side of PR because that is what I have always been interested in. If it has anything to do with sports then I’m trying to be in the middle of it, particularly basketball and football. I couldn’t begin to tell you how much of my day is dedicated to watching EPSN, but then again, what guy isn’t watching that channel 24/7? My dream is to someday move to Houston and work for the Houston Texans or the Rockets, two of my favorite professional teams growing up. Honestly, just working somewhere in Houston would be a great opportunity for me. All of my family, with the exception of myself, is from Houston and I would love the chance to live there and take advantage of all it has to offer! I know I probably won’t be able to make the jump there right out of college but I’m still hopeful and doing whatever it takes to make that happen.

That brings me to my next point, which is finding an internship. For some reason I never can land one and I think that’s in part of me just wanting to find a place where I can fit in and get the most experience. Most of my search has been this year, but nothing has come up yet. However, I am currently doing job-shadowing, which in my eyes is a precursor to landing an internship. One of my job shadowing sites is here at Austin Film Festival. The reason I chose AFF was because I applied for an internship with them earlier in the fall at Texas State’s Job and Internship Fair. The representative they had doing their applications just happened to be a girl I knew from two of my classes, named Kristen. She talked to me about what AFF was all about and how much she liked interning for them. Not only that, but I knew a former intern, Malcolm Rogers, who told me he loved being there as well and recommended it to me. The name Austin Film Festival sounded familiar to me, but I hadn’t really heard of anything else they did, so I thought, why not apply?

So far, my time here has been nothing short of spectacular. As soon as I walked in my first day, I felt so warm and cozy. I didn’t know their office was set up in a house so I didn’t know what to expect, but when I got there I definitely felt “right at home.” If I could describe AFF in one word, it would be CBS, like the channel. All their personalities and humor remind me of the sitcoms they have on that station, especially when I sat in on their staff meeting, seeing everyone in the same room bouncing ideas off each other. It makes you feel like you’re behind the scenes of some popular television sitcom and in front of you are all the writers and producers. When I got there, we all went over the gist of what Austin Film Festival is about and what they do, and then we were split up into our different departments. I was assigned to the Conference Department which is headed up by Maya Perez. Working with Maya has been real cool. She’s super chill and that’s kind of how I am too. Never getting too worked up, taking things one step at a time. She gave me a couple of assignments and was really helpful when I needed some assistance on something. If I get the opportunity to intern here, I think I’ll either apply under her department or the marketing department.

Well, I don’t want to give too much away about my experience! If you ever consider doing job shadowing or possibly interning for Austin Film Festival, go for it! I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback about them and my time here has definitely been pleasant. I’m really looking to get my foot in the door and get some experience somewhere and I think here is a great place to start.

-Kevin Rawls, Public Relations Senior, Texas State University-San Marcos