As school gets underway for many students around the country, the second cycle of PromaxBDA’s Promo Pathway, an intensive training program focused on writing, producing and editing on-air promotions, is coming to a close. But while these current Promo Pathway students are winding down their studies, their journey into the industry is only beginning. Following their graduation on Thursday, September 19, and a Creative Review on September 20 showcasing their work from the past year, the second class of Promo Pathway students will be ready to transition successfully into the on-air promotions workplace—if they haven’t already.














Jennifer Monzon graduated from the first cycle of Promo Pathway in December 2011. Prior to entering the program, she was a young TV and radio student at Santa Monica College who had never left Los Angeles. By the time Promo Pathway was completed, she had traveled to Miami for an internship at Telemundo and, upon returning home, started working as a consumer marketing specialist at NBCUniversal. All this and Monzon is still a busy student taking night classes to wrap up her college degree. Brief caught up with her to hear the year her life changed in the Promo Pathway program.

BRIEF: You were already a TV and radio student at Santa Monica College before you applied for Promo Pathway. What kind of work were you interested in doing in that field?

JENNIFER MONZON: I just knew that I wanted to be in Spanish television. I’ve known that since I was in high school, but I couldn’t figure a way in or the route I wanted to take.

Were you familiar with the on-air promotions world when you first applied for the program?

I really didn’t know what the program was about because I really had no idea what a promo was at that time, [but] at the bottom of the website it had all of [these big media] sponsors and I saw the television logos and I thought, “this looks like a really big opportunity.” But I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.

And how did you feel when you realized it was going to involve writing and editing promos?

I didn’t figure it out until we had our first writing class and I was like, “oh we’re going to be writing promos.” And then they started showing them and I realized, “those are commercials for TV shows… why do they call them promos?”

When you started writing promos, being entirely new to that craft, was it immediately interesting to you or did it take you a while to warm up to it?

No, it took me a while to get the hang of it. You’re never good the first couple of times you do it. But I’m so into soap operas and Spanish networks are huge on soap operas, so it was something that I was really passionate about. My Spanish also is really good so that’s what I wanted to get myself into.

What was your favorite part of the Promo Pathway experience?

I think it was the internship, and then my [Promo Pathway] mentor, Pat Shaver from Playboy Plus, helped me a lot through the whole year. She would help me interview and have me do interviews with her coworkers on the phone or in person for practice, and they would just give me feedback on what to do or how to address it and how not to struggle in expressing myself. We still keep in touch to this day.

Talk about your experience with the internship at Telemundo and with Susan Solano Vila, their EVP of marketing

Oh, I felt blessed. I had never even left LA, and I got a call from HR [at Telemundo] asking me, “what do you think about flying to Miami?” I told them “I don’t have any money, I’m still a student and my savings aren’t enough to afford housing or transportation.” And they said, “We might be able to help you with that.” After that, they didn’t have to ask me twice!

What kind of work did they have you doing?

At first I started logging and then toward the end I was actually taken out to shoots, and I helped the radio department with promos. They had a show called “Yo Me Llamo” and I helped put together the creative stuff for its promos. I was flying to the auditions to interview the [actors] and then they asked me to write [a script]. I did my first promo spot and they aired it! The last day, they took the script from my promo and they all signed it. So that was pretty awesome.

From applying for a program that you knew nothing about beyond the logos on the website, you now have a job in this industry as a consumer marketing specialist at NBC. What’s become your favorite part about working in promo?

I don’t write the promos but I do get to go to where they shoot them, and help put them together in editing and production. It’s a process working with other people. Some people disagree, some want it one way… but it eventually comes together and things happen. You’re always busy, and you’re never working alone. I think that’s what I like most about it.

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