Colt Gunn, a rising junior majoring in communication studies, took advantage of an unforgettable opportunity with NYC Pride that demonstrates how beneficial hands-on can illuminate the way for new career opportunities. 

The experience began with one of Gunn’s spring courses—CMST 4628: Empowerment of the LGBTQ+ Community Through the NYC Pride March: Exploration of a Social Movement. In this class, students learn about LGBTQ+ history throughout the spring and volunteer at NYC Pride in June. This past spring, Gunn and his classmates dove into the rich historical and modern-day topics of the LGBTQ+ community. They watched movies, read articles, engaged in historical research, wrote to Pennsylvania senators and encouraged others to volunteer at NYC Pride.  

When NYC Pride’s media coordinator, Hunter T. Simmons, reached out to the class about an open position working behind-the-scenes for the event’s official social media pages, Gunn pursued the opportunity heavily, following up with Simmons regularly to demonstrate his interest and eventually securing the role. When the team needed a videographer on the day of the event, Gunn stepped up, shooting b-roll of the event and interviewing key players such as the march’s Grand Marshals and performing talent.  

Gunn’s initiative gained him not only an unforgettable experience working on the production and storytelling side of an iconic event but also new skills in videography and interviewing for social media—skills he admits he had never tapped into before.  

“My biggest challenge was that I wasn’t ready,” he admitted. “But you’ll never be fully ready. I just had to step up. Even if I wasn’t ready, I just did it to the best of my ability.” 

He encourages other students to take advantage of any opportunities that may come and be persistent in pursuing them, even if those opportunities are new. He admits that his work with NYC Pride opened a pathway to a new potential career track in social media, which he had never explored before, and led him to apply to other internships in social media that he would never have pursued before. 

“I never thought about [a career in] social media,” Gunn said. “It’s a whole new world that I realized I liked and can do.”