By Pure Chance

I’ve been working at the Academic Media Center for a little over a semester. When I first came in August to be interviewed, I was so anxious. I had only been at St. Mary’s University for a few weeks and had no idea what to anticipate out of this new environment.

Since then, I have felt the complete opposite. I’ve learned so much about not only the equipment I work with, but also life lessons that will help me when I eventually leave and enter my career field. Liza Sanchez has been one of those people who have taught me and many others skills that we wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. I was able to sit down and learn more about her background and how she ended up here at St. Mary’s University as a media specialist.

Liza Sanchez works as media specialist at the Academic Media Center. She produces and directs videos for the university. Before she came here, she was working in broadcasting with a CBS affiliate, KENS-TV. She saw an ad in the paper for St. Mary’s University. She has been working here for thirty plus years. In addition to that, she does workshops with students where they learn how to use DSLR, DV cameras (used by staff and student assistants), and the video editing software Final Cut Pro. She continuously attempts to bring new information to the table. During our time together, she revealed she is learning Adobe Premiere, another video editing software, to be able to teach students. It is safe to say myself and many other students have learned a lot from her. That is one of my favorite things about educators. Those impacts last for a lifetime. Many students are able to gain skills in these programs and use them in whatever field they join once they leave St. Mary’s University.

When I asked her how she ended up at this institution, she told me it was “By pure chance.” That’s something that I found very fascinating. To me it proves how unpredictable life can be. When I found out about how she came to St. Mary’s University, it almost seemed not real. You never hear stories like this unless it is in a film. Furthermore, the fact that she found out about a job that would change her life through something as simple as a newspaper is incredible. Liza Sanchez told me she had never thought about the academic side of this field because she had only known broadcasting. She tells me she’s been told she could be making more money in broadcasting and while she acknowledges that is right, the rewards for being in education outweigh that. Education gets very overlooked when it comes to careers which can be saddening when you have so many hardworking people in this field. They help us get to where we want to go in life. All in all, education might not have been her first choice but the rewards gained from coming to this field have been rewarding themselves.

Jennifer Saldana Jimenez came from Phoenix, Arizona to St Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. She is a first-year student studying Communications Studies. She enjoys traveling and reading comics in her free time.

Posted April 11, 2019

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