Pedro Rodríguez, New Media

Spring 2024

Expected Graduation: Spring 2025

While growing up back in Ecuador, I always enjoyed and was passionate about drawing and making art. It started from sketching and simply drawing on the last pages of notebooks which eventually turned into bigger projects and aspirations. During my last years in high school, I realized that a field of art would be a good fit for me, but I also wanted to think about the future and find a way to combine art with technology. Keeping that in mind, I initially decided to pursue a career in graphic design, with one of my main goals at the time being to study abroad in The United States. After my first year at The University of Tampa, I changed to New Media, as the major aligned more with my views of combining art and technology. Taking courses such as creative coding, and UX/UI made me realize that this is a field that can open paths I didn’t think of before and make a career out of it. 

I’ve always believed in my creativity and skills to create digital work in my own way by mixing hobbies, culture, and interests I might share with a specific topic. I am confident with my skills in applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator as it has been my main source when it comes to connecting to things I enjoy in my own time, such as mixed martial arts or traditional Japanese artwork. I also believe these two applications to be the closest to the idea where I can take something I have on paper and move it to a digital medium with ease personally.

 On the other hand, I have always struggled with putting my ideas into other fields such as animation or film. From my experience, I have found it difficult to improve in these fields as I have a bigger interest in Photoshop or Illustrator and creating digital artwork such as posters instead of focusing on rendered/video work. Despite my lack of skill in these areas, I still hope to improve on them through internships or other projects that allow me to gain experience and be more efficient with said programs.

After graduating, I want to work in a sports-related field where I can put my passion and creativity to those sports into work that can be visually appealing to future clients. I believe that with a major in new media, I can be more versatile in the current job market and be capable of creating projects on different mediums. I want to see my future self eventually working for a big sports firm such as UFC or ESPN, which can show what I’m capable of to a bigger audience than I’m used to. Dreams like this are what drive me forward to keep working and improving on my current skills so that once I start my career, I can be versatile and have multiple solutions for any challenge I face.