Ollivia Mayberry
Year: Third
Major: Communication and Leadership
This semester, Ollivia Mayberry has served as a Texas Football Recruiting Operations intern with Texas Athletics. She has helped with recruiting visits, game day operations, camps, and junior days while also gaining experience with scheduling, communication, and working with compliance to make sure everything follows NCAA rules. Mayberry said managing check-ins for recruits and their families, coordinating event details, and helping with different parts of the recruiting process has given her hands on experience in the sports industry. She has also worked with brands like Honey Pot and Kendra Scott through digital campaigns, and she is currently a content creator intern for the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurship Leadership Institute at UT.
"Put yourself out there early and do not wait for opportunities to come to you. A lot of my connections started from simply reaching out to people on LinkedIn or Instagram and introducing myself. Building relationships is just as important as having experience, and you never know who might open the next door for you."
Kenobi Corrales
Year: Second
Major: Radio, Television and Film
Kenobi Corrales served as director of photography on second-year Radio, Television and Film major Sean Edwards’ short film “Sticks.” This semester, the film was accepted into the Golden State Film festival, where it was screened at the Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. Corrales’ role was translating Edwards’ vision into fully realized shots by setting up lighting and framing scenes. He said the project was rewarding and taught him the importance of choosing projects he is passionate about. Beyond the festival, Corrales worked on a videography project with GymShark this semester, where he filmed athlete ambassadors and workout content, an experience he said pushes him to grow in ways he hadn’t anticipated.
"If you have a project in your mind, it is good to carry it out, but having other people come and help you that just makes it so much better, because everyone has their own thought process. Everyone has their own way of thinking. So adding on to what you created just makes it many times better, having so many different perspectives and thoughts on it that aren’t just your own."
Aaron Sullivan
Year: Fourth
Major: Journalism and Theater & Dance
Over the last year, Aaron Sullivan wrote a documentary play about the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire, the most financially destructive wildfire in Texas history. Having grown up in Bastrop, he drew personal memories of the fire, community interviews and archival research from institutions including the Briscoe center on campus. The play follows the growing wildfire risk that comes with rapid urban development, and Sullivan aims to preserve the community’s collective memory of the disaster for the wave of new residents who weren’t there. Sullivan recently held two public readings of the script, including one in Bastrop that drew 60 people, and he is now pursuing grants and production space to stage a full performance.
"Surround yourself with people who will be critical but uplifting. I don’t think I would be able to do this without the professors that I’m constantly bugging and being like, is this working?... It’s just, being confident enough in your abilities to go out and do something and then getting out of your comfort zone."
Macy Smith
Year: Fourth
Major: Public Relations
As co-director of UT Tower & Bridge Communications, Macy Smith leads a 35-student agency in developing and executing campaigns for paid and non-profit clients. Previously, she has interned with Disney Consumer Products in Los Angeles, where she supported brand work for major franchises and learned how large-scale creative teams operate. Smith also interned with WHITT ROSS, where she assisted in event setup for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. She said seeing how much coordination goes into an event of that scale, and how quickly teams have to adapt when plans change, taught her the value of staying solutions-focused under pressure.
