Spring 2020 Sustainability Fellows: Alejandro Suarez

Project: How can Sustainable Campus utilize digital media and film to reach a wider audience?

Partner: Sustainable Campus

Program: First Year Undergraduate in Digital Media and Production

Alejandro is a freshman from Miami, Florida pursuing digital media and production at FSU.  Having an interest in media production and sustainable living, he is excited to be involved with this organization. 

As a Spring 2020 Sustainability Fellow, Alejandro worked with Sustainable Campus, which is the Office of Sustainability at Florida State University. The mission of the office is to promote a culture of sustainable living at FSU and within the campus community.

Sustainable Campus was interested in utilizing digital media and film to reach a wider audience. With his skills in digital media production, Alejandro collaborated with the Sustainable Campus Communications team to create promotional videos for the office and its programs.

During the Fall semester, Alejandro focused on developing an informational video highlighting a new centralized waste system, which will help FSU students, staff, and faculty dispose of their waste sustainably. Alejandro worked with the Sustainable Campus Communications team to create a storyboard, shoot footage in the new EOAS building, and edit the video for publication. Due to the COVID-19 situation, Alejandro was limited in his ability to complete reshoots in the spring; however, he is interested in joining the team as a Sustainability Fellow in Fall 2020 to continue to project and complete more content for other Sustainable Campus initiatives.

Alejandro’s project partners were impressed with his communication skills and adaptability. Although the video direction changed multiple times as the Sustainable Campus team incorporated waste bins in more locations, Alejandro was consistently flexible and committed to creating a high quality product.

As a Sustainability Fellow, Alejandro enjoyed collaborating with a team. Before working with Sustainable Campus, Alejandro had mainly created videos independently, and he learned that he liked bouncing ideas off other people. He believes the experience will help him as he works with new groups in upcoming projects.

“I learned that things don’t always go as expected, and it’s usually not a bad thing. You just need to be able to adapt.” Alejandro said. “I would recommend this program because it’s a great way to gain experience working in a professional environment on real-world projects.”

To learn more about the Sustainability Fellows program, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/sustainability-fellows.