To celebrate Elon’s 135th Commencement on May 23, Today at Elon is highlighting several graduating seniors who have made the most of their Elon experience.
Four years ago, Cristy Mariné ‘25 didn’t know where she wanted to attend college, so she cast a wide net – applying to 27 schools. Now, as Mariné prepares to graduate from Elon University, she doesn’t second-guess her choice; Elon gave her the opportunities to study abroad, double major, direct three films and complete five internships.
“I would say it’s bittersweet, but it’s more bitter than sweet,” said Mariné about graduating. “I have gotten so much support and guidance from the people that I’ve met here at Elon, whether they stayed in my life for a long time, or they haven’t, they have impacted my journey here so much that I just feel so incredibly grateful to spend my past four years here.”
The study abroad opportunities and cinema & television arts program drew Mariné to Elon, specifically the program’s push for students to participate in the Elon in Los Angeles program, and the incorporation of internships. Internships are one of the five Elon Experiences and students must complete at least two to graduate.
Into the internships
Mariné, who is also majoring in strategic communications, dove right into the Elon Experiences during the summer after her freshman year, working on content production for Great HealthWorks in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The following spring, she chose to study abroad in Sorrento, Italy, taking courses like volcanology, drawing on location and European literature. While in Italy, she interned with a photography studio, focusing on social media, wedding photography and film development.
“It was challenging because they only spoke Italian. So thankfully with my Spanish and their Italian, we were able to communicate pretty well, but it was really great,” said Mariné. “It was a family-owned business, so I would have dinner with my bosses and their families, and it was so nice because I was developing my Italian skills while they were developing their Spanish skills.”
She returned to the U.S. that summer and headed straight to Miami, Florida, for another internship with NBC6/Telemundo, creating short and long-form video in both English and Spanish.
“My internship with NBC6 and Telemundo 51 was absolutely pivotal for my career development,” she said. “It taught me so much about how to work in a fast-paced environment, how to identify trending news, how to be the first ones to cover something, but also considering quality over quantity and making sure that the work we’re doing is correct. It was definitely the most challenging internship I had, but it was incredible.”
Her NBC6/Telemundo internship paved the way for her next opportunity with E! News in spring 2024 through the Elon in LA program.
“It was a wonderful experience because I was doing an internship in the heart of the entertainment industry within entertainment news,” she said. “I got to go to award shows and I was meeting celebrities and expanding my digital content skills, which was awesome.”
After E! News, Mariné went to the other coast for a summer internship at law firm Proskauer Rose in New York City, handling digital content. Now, she’s on contract with E! News again, working for the entertainment company on the weekends.
“Working at E! News was just an absolute dream that I did not expect,” said Mariné. “My managers were so supportive. It was also so cool because the office is in Universal City in LA. So, the theme park is two steps away and then you also have all the studio lots.”
In 2023 and 2024, Mariné was named a LAGRANT Foundation Scholar and, in fall 2024, she participated in the prestigious IRTS Foundational Multicultural Career workshop, an initiative designed to support students and recent graduates from underrepresented backgrounds pursue careers in the media industry.
Finding her roots
Despite her numerous internships, Mariné still found time for other campus involvement and scholarship. She is a finalist for a Fulbright UK Study Grant and is a student communication coordinator at El Centro. She credits Syliva Muñoz, the assistant dean of students and director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education (CREDE), along with MJ Larrazabel Chacon, assistant director of CREDE, with helping her along the way.
“They feel like family at this point, because they’re like my mom and my sister away from home,” said Mariné. “It’s been really nice to have their support and to have them be so understanding of everything and to just give me a space where I really struggled finding my culture at Elon my first semester and connecting with MJ and Sylvia, and the CREDE and El Centro really helped me find my roots again.”
Mariné, who was born in Venezuela, incorporates her culture into her film work. During her third year, she created a film that, she says, represents Latinx/Hispanic culture in an authentic way, telling the story of a girl navigating grief after losing her grandmother.
“I lost my grandmother a couple of months before and I wanted to create a story where I could represent our culture and also just amplify voices that aren’t often heard,” said Mariné. “I feel like in the media nowadays we see a lot of representation, but a lot of it is performative or it causes more damage than good. It made me realize that in the future I want to continue telling stories that uplift unheard voices and create representation in the media that adds a positive impact that doesn’t create stereotypes.”
I just feel so incredibly grateful to spend my past four years here.
Cristy Mariné ‘25
Her Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis film, “The Fantastic Adventure of Felix Fisher,” tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who tries to one up his arch-nemesis Serena during a show-and-tell presentation, telling a story about his “magnificent” journey to the aquarium.
“It explores the themes of imagination, curiosity and grief,” she said. “It’s a great story in the sense that I see myself relate to it a lot because, as a child, I was super curious and I always wanted to do these things like travel, and that’s how we see Felix as well.”
And as Mariné prepares for commencement on May 23, she’s looking back at how Elon helped her explore that curiosity.
“There are so many communities at Elon,” she said. “There’s something for everyone here, and that’s something that in my first semester, I wasn’t sure if I would find a space for myself,” she said.” But then, when I went to the org fair and I got involved with El Centro, Cinelon Productions and Instant Laughter, I found my people and I found my place.”