Article 3 of a 5-part series on UT San Antonio’s hidden talent pipeline
Once you spend a day recruiting our students, you stop thinking about what San Antonio doesn’t have, and you start seeing everything it does.
That’s exactly what happened when I reached out to Netflix. I knew our students had the talent to compete on any stage, and Netflix was intentional about discovering new voices. They were serious about investing in emerging talent, and I saw an opportunity our students truly deserved.
When we visited their Hollywood headquarters, the response exceeded every expectation. Netflix not only welcomed us to their campus, they encouraged us to expand the conversation by inviting other organizations. NVIDIA, Riot Games, Google, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences all joined us. I shared our students’ profiles and their stories, and the impact was immediate.
Two professors from our new Film and Media Studies Program, Paul Ardoin (associate professor and director of the Film/Media Studies Program) and Guillermina Zabala Suarez (professor of practice in the Film/Media Studies Program), were also leading our visit. Each met independently with Netflix producers to explore collaboration and talk through our new curriculum, reinforcing the depth of preparation behind the students who made such a strong impression.
The Moment It Clicked
Netflix’s team started asking questions, and our professors started answering, not in theory, but from experience. They shared that students had built full-scale media projects, film studies portfolios, and data dashboards as part of their coursework. Others were already interning at creative agencies around the city.
By the end of that visit, Netflix wasn’t talking about “if” they’d recruit at UT San Antonio, it was “decided.”
One of their recruiters told me afterward, “We didn’t realize how much talent was coming out of UT San Antonio. Your students are trailblazers.”
That word, trailblazers, stuck with me, because that’s exactly what sets our students apart. Half of our students are first-gen. This matters to employers.
When you grow up balancing jobs, school, and family obligations, you learn how to figure things out. You learn to lead without waiting for permission.
And Netflix saw that right away.
We started to create a strategy together for more recruiting opportunities for our students. Not just in Hollywood, but across functions and locations.
They wanted to understand how UT San Antonio was producing this kind of talent pipeline. I told them the truth: it’s not magic. It’s mission.
UT San Antonio was built to serve the students of this city, students who are 68 percent underrepresented minority, 53 percent female, and 45 percent first-generation college students. Those aren’t just numbers. That’s the story of San Antonio.
And it’s the story Netflix saw when they started to recruit here.
Because once you spend a day recruiting our students, you stop thinking about what San Antonio doesn’t have and start seeing everything it does. The creativity, the work ethic, the culture, the pride. It is all right here.
When Netflix started to recruit, it wasn’t just about filling jobs, it was about finding voices.
And what they found here were storytellers.
What Happened Next
What Netflix set in motion didn’t stay with Netflix. After our early conversations and meetings, they invited UT San Antonio to speak about how major employers can successfully recruit at Hispanic Serving Institutions, and they opened the room to other HSIs across the country, which also have high numbers of first-gen students. That kind of platform doesn’t happen unless a company believes deeply in the talent they are seeing.
And once Netflix signaled that belief, other employers took notice. Warner Media began engaging with our students. Hulu and Univision reached out. More film, media, and tech companies began building relationships with our programs. This wave has already led to new opportunities, like the student from our Film and Media Studies Program who recently landed an internship with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, one of the fastest growing sports media companies in the world.
All of it reinforces what Netflix saw on day one: UT San Antonio isn’t just producing graduates. We are producing creators, leaders, and storytellers who can walk into a room at Netflix or anywhere else and immediately belong.
Citations
Paul Ardoin: https://provost.utsa.edu/news/2024/05/story/paul-ardoin-faculty-profile.html
Joshua Gutierrez, Netflix colleague: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heyjoshuag/