From helping a friend with an RA task to producing content for thousands of students, SUNY New Paltz senior Quincy Simmons proves that small moments can lead to big opportunities.

Quincy, a fourth-year Journalism major with a minor in Film & Video studies, blends storytelling and strategy to create content that resonates with students across campus as a social media intern for the Communication and Marketing Department. It’s a opportunity he created by himself.

A Resident Assistant, Quincy began his journey into this role unexpectedly during his junior year. While helping a friend with creating content for a residence hall, Quincy gained the attention of campus administration. That spark led to an invitation to cover an event for the school. This offer led Quincy to his internship for the Fall 2025 semester. He recalls that the most rewarding part of his internship is being able to create content for the school and see what students are engaged in on social media.  This work has given him ideas for different video concepts and building connections with those he films with daily.

The most challenging part of this internship was writer’s block. Quincy notes that developing ideas for a new video content can be one of the most challenging parts of the creative process. Like many students in their major, they sometimes experience creative blocks but view these moments as opportunities for growth and inspiration.

For students that are starting the internship process, Quincy advises to be ahead of the game and be ready, especially for sophomores. Starting the process early can help in the long run for your junior and senior year. Quincy suggests meeting with your major advisor and internship coordinator as soon as you can in order to get an idea of what type of internship you are looking for. By starting early, it can save time and stress when it comes to finding and completing an internship.

As a DMJ student, Quincy’s most positive outcomes from this internship are learning the social media side of filming. Quincy enjoys editing video and audio content and taking on this internship has helped him learn a new side of content creation. He has enjoyed learning the differences and similarities of how to edit and produce for social media versus films and documentaries.

Before this internship, Quincy also interned for Writer’s Read, an organization that gives spotlight to aspiring writers. Quincy completed this internship during Spring 2024 and decided to take on another internship to earn more experience and credits for his major.

From residence hall videos to campus-wide campaigns, Quincy Simmons is proof that creativity and willingness to say “yes” can open doors to new and exciting opportunities as a DMJ student.