Far from home and finding their footing - Kenzy and Paulina innovate their futures at FSU

Courtesy of Kenzy El Sayed

By Avery Slavin Editorial Staff Kenzy El Sayed, a senior communications major and marketing minor, attends Framingham State on a student visa from Egypt. Paulina Guerra, a senior marketing major and communications minor, attends Framingham State on a student visa from Ecuador. While on their visas, Kenzy and Paulina are unable to get jobs off-campus, so the resources at FSU are essential to their professional growth. They said the Entrepreneur Innovation Center, or EIC, has been the biggest factor in getting the experience they need without having to leave Framingham State’s campus. Their interest in the field is not new. For Kenzy, it dates back as far as middle school, where she said she created short video documentaries on school field trips, adding background music to video clips of her and her friends. During her senior year of high school, Kenzy said she took her interest in social media creation a step further and started making graphics on Canva. She said she soon became the social media manager for her school’s Model UN, so when it came time to decide what she wanted to major in, the choice was easy - marketing. On the other hand, Paulina said she took a business management class in high school, and it was “the only class [she] would look forward to.” She said she learned about the creativity and planning aspects of marketing as well as the science and psychology behind it, and that was a driving factor in her decision to study it. As a part of her internship at the EIC, Paulina said she has worked with a website design startup for about two years now, which has really helped her understand what goes into all the aspects of a business. She said she is applying that knowledge while completing her capstone in strategic marketing, where she is working with a “living, breathing restaurant” to make the marketing campaign for them. “It’s different when you’re in class and just guessing and putting things on paper, but when it’s an actual business that will lose money if you don't get your act together, the responsibility you have is different,” she said. Kenzy said working at the EIC was similar to working with clients in any office job, giving her real-world experience while not having to go far. Now working as a senior intern for the EIC, she said she was able to “grow” in that role and develop the leadership skills she will carry into her future endeavors. Kenzy has started to apply what she’s learned on FSU’s social media pages. Kenzy, along with social media intern Izabela Gage, run the University’s Instagram and TikTok accounts, posting frequent videos relating viral trends to campus life. Gage said she and Kenzy spend a lot of time on social media to see what other universities post, teaching them about audience engagement, event photography, videography, and editing. “Starting here [at FSU], I wanted to do social media. When I was a freshman, I thought it’d be cool to manage it. It feels so cool doing it now. During the MASCAC championship this past fall, I got a media pass, and it felt so special because no one else could access the field. I felt like I worked for ESPN,” Kenzy said. Gage said, “I love being so present in campus life because it makes me feel like I’m getting the most out of my college experience by meeting so many people. My coworkers and boss make my internship so exciting and easygoing that it doesn’t even feel like a job sometimes.” While they both stay busy with their own work, the two were able to help put together a Food Entrepreneurship Summit last Fall, with help from EIC Director Michael Clouser and intern Reagan Condry. “It was kind of like our little baby. Seeing an event come to life and doing the whole planning process beforehand, and then the event going as well as it did was such an accomplishment,” Paulina said. Kenzy added they planned out all the logistics and did all the marketing for the event, even drawing attention from Babson College and MIT. Paulina said Kenzy is more of the event planner for the EIC. She reached out to businesses to see if they’d be interested in coming to the Food Entrepreneurship event, and found the networking events and conferences they attend along with other students. “At the events we attend, it gives [us] so much confidence being in a room where [we’re] probably the youngest ones. Everyone is usually looking to get their master’s, and we’re just like, ‘We’re seniors!’ “It gives you a different approach to professionals and other people. It gets rid of that nervous feeling, although we still have it sometimes,” Paulina added. They laughed as they described a game they like to play at networking events, giving each other a specific number of LinkedIn connections to acquire by the time they leave. “We broke a record last time. We got 10,” they said. Currently, Kenzy and Paulina are helping plan the MetroWest Startup Week taking place on April 27 and May 1. After graduation, Kenzy hopes to find a job in a luxury fashion market or the film industry, and Paulina hopes to land a job in the tourism industry, specifically working for an airline. They both said they plan on going back to their home countries after they graduate, and Paulina said she looks forward to applying the work experience she got at FSU to her job in the future. Their best advice for anyone interested in going down the same path is to just start. Paulina said it’s disappointing hearing any kind of rejection in the professional world, but “if you don’t try, you already have a ‘no.’” [Editor’s Note: Izabela Gage is the Sports Editor for The Gatepost]