This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UPR chapter.
When the fashionable communication student, Samuel Olivares, had the opportunity of participating in the National Student Exchange Program he did it in a heartbeat. He went from being a regular student on campus to being named the next Bill Cunningham by a New York Times’ editor during the two-week long Student Internship Program.
Just one year abroad at Towson University in Maryland gave Samuel the exposure he needed to burst out of his bubble. During the exchange, Samuel not only collaborated in the weekly publication of a column in the Towerlight Newspaper, but he also got the chance to travel around the U.S. This experience transformed his perspective and introduced Samuel to a new world.
During his semester at Towson, Samuel focused on photography. He took a lot of photography classes, including one with Monica Lopossay, who is a Pulitzer nominee and a former photographer from The Baltimore Sun! From January to May of last year, Samuel landed the Student Internship with the New York Times. He said he was in shock when he got selected because he applied for the photojournalism section, where he had no sophisticated experience (except for his classes). He was recognized for his hard work, enthusiasm and cleverness.
Needless to say, Samuel gained a lot of admirers very fast. He shared that the New York Times’ editors were really impressed with his coverage of the 1-year anniversary commemoration of the Tucson shooting, even though he was not assigned to cover the event.
“I decided to go on my own and sneak in to take pictures of the congresswoman and victim, Gabrielle Giffords. I even had to climb a fence to take the picture, but I got the shot that I needed!”, he says.
“I rushed back to the office with all the pictures and showed the editors. I felt honored because they decided to use one of my pictures for the newspaper. It was amazing”, he says.
After this experience, Samuel was assigned to cover the Fall 2012 Fashion Week in New York City as a freelancer photojournalist. There, he met many hot celebrities like Anna Wintour, Tommy Hilfiger, Catherine Roitfeld, Ricky Martin and the talented Bill Cunningham. He got 32 published photos for the online edition and 7 on the print edition (including, Sunday).
Now, Samuel has transitioned from doing internships to actually freelancing for several mediums. He says that this exchange program helped him shape his career and life goals. Additionally, after living through all those adventures, he concludes that the most important quality that a person must have is not only the talent but the personality!