Meanwhile, a woman that worked in health
marketing gave Acevedo her first client, after
Gema Acevedo (left) talks to editing, writing, and media students about being confident and showcasing their strengths in the
communications field to potential employers. Seated from left: instructor Susan Hellstrom, Maria Velez, and Lindsay Mead.
Y
our country is in the midst of a financial crisis, and you’ve
been laid-off from work. You have very little money to go
back to school, but you need to gain a competitive edge
against other people looking for jobs. You decide to diversi-
fy your resumé by learning a new language, and you decide to get an
education in business and marketing. Your university: Netflix, Hulu,
and Google.
Such was the case for communications and marketing strategist
Gema Acevedo of Valencia, who has been a guest speaker in the Ed-
iting, Writing, and Media (EWM) Program in Valencia for four of the
past five years.
An economic crisis hit Spain starting late 2007 partly due to the
A risk taker
and
path maker
Valencian Gema Acevedo encourages
students to create the career they want
Article and photos by Tomas Cabezas
global recession affecting other Eurozone countries. The crisis lagged
on, and as a result, Acevedo lost her job as a reporter for a Valencian
news station when the station closed due to financial issues in 2013.
“When I got fired from the TV station, I cried a lot, but I thought ‘OK
it’s time to make it on my own, to be a journalist by myself,’” she says.
16 Nomadic Noles // Summer 2018
Born and raised in Valencia, she didn’t want to leave the city she
loved. Thus, she began her journey toward molding a successful
future. She taught herself English by watching popular shows in
English like Lost and continued to practice with shows such as The
Walking Dead and The Handmaid’s Tale. She achieved her goal by lis-
tening, reading English subtitles, and conversing with native English
speakers.
“I couldn’t pay for a master’s, and my parents were also affected by
the crisis, so they couldn’t help me either,” Acevedo says. “I improved
my English every day by listening and watching the subtitles; I don’t
have time or the money to go to a class with a native speaker.”
Acevedo looked to online learning as a vital educational resource,
given her situation. She took online marketing and communi-
cation courses through Google Academies, where she studied
online marketing and communication.
FSU Valencia Dean and Director Ignacio Messana met Acev-
edo at a teaching event in 2013 organized by the US Embassy
in Spain and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in which
they were helping people improve their resumes and teach-
ing them about public speaking, social networks, and personal
branding. Acevedo impressed Messana right away.
“She’s a combination of a professional person with good
communicating and teaching skills, and at the same time, she
has a good personality,” Messana says.
After Facebook emerged, social media wedged its way into
the field of communication and journalism as users began uti-
lizing social media to distribute news and to build brands.
Acevedo saw this as an opportunity.
Sifting through potential clients’ social media pages and
websites, she realized the clients could improve the way these
platforms were used. Acevedo made her talents known by direct mes-
saging potential clients on their Instagram accounts or by showing up
in person and explaining how she could boost their image. In the old
days, this was known as cold-calling, and Acevedo admitted to the
EWM students that it was difficult.
Acevedo met her at a networking seminar.
“I gave my card to a woman journalist and
talked with her for a while. I told her that I
can write and edit,” Acevedo says. “She called
me a few months later, and I started to work
with her.”
During her presentation to the EWM stu-
dents in summer 2018, she talked about her
journey to find a job and regain financial sta-
bility. Her energetic personality meshed well
with the students.
“She relates very well with the students in
terms of social media and the idea that to-
day’s work ethic is not about having just one
responsibility,” EWM program instructor Jack
Clifford says. “Her enthusiasm for speaking
with the students has not changed at all since
the first year she visited the classoom. She re-
ally cares about the students and that shows
in how she speaks to the class as a group and,
at times, to individual students.”
Acevedo, whose clients are in the medical
field, specializes in health communication.
She showed EWM students how she manag-
es two of her clients—one a dentist and the
other a cosmetic surgeon—on social media
and through their websites.
“I like to show a lot of before-and-after
pictures—the clients and patients love seeing
those photos on Instagram,” Acevedo says.
These are before-and-after photos of
crooked teeth corrected to whitened smiles
and graphic videos of plastic surgery proce-
dures that might seem too intense for a pic-
turesque platform like Instagram. However,
Acevedo realized that she could use Insta-
gram to advertise for her clients.
“She taught herself and gained all this ex-
perience, and then decided to go up to busi-
nesses and say ‘Hey, you need me,’” EWM stu-
“I think with technology
that we have now, work
needs to evolve. It doesn’t
make any sense to be in
the office writing if you
can go somewhere else.”
— Gema Acevedo
dent Alejandra Guzman says.
Turns out, prospective patients (and EWM
students) like seeing images that show re-
sults, no matter how medically graphic they
are.
After showing students these images and
the high rankings her clients received in
Google searches, Acevedo told students that
stable job opportunities within social media
were possible; you just have to put yourself
out there.
For EWM students seeking job security, this
meant hope.
“When she explained what she did as a ca-
reer, I hadn’t met anyone who did that,” EWM dia or go toward a path of entrepreneurship
student Erin Groves says. “I felt a sense of re- in competitive times, Acevedo’s perseverance
assurance that it actually existed.” through grim circumstances offered hope.
Groves works as head of social media for Yet she had one final bit of advice for the
the Florida Podiatric Medical Association, students.
where she is in charge of all social media ac- “You must remember, though, that work is
counts. not the most important thing,” she says. “The
“I struggle with my job sometimes because most important thing is your family, your life,
I don’t know what to post, but she showed me and your time.”
real examples,” Groves says.
EWM student Allison No-
tari plans to go to law school
once she graduates, yet she
still found Acevedo’s insight
applicable.
“A lot of what she talked
about was about interacting
with people and connecting
with people, and you can’t
be an attorney without being
able to interact with your cli-
ents,” Notari says.
On top of managing six cli-
ents, Acevedo now owns her
own business, La Ratita Sibar-
ita. An e-commerce business
and blog, La Ratita Sibarita of-
fers a variety of gourmet food
products shipped throughout
Spain, combining her love for
writing, social media, and en-
trepreneurship.
“I think with technolo-
gy that we have now, work
Gema Acevedo (right) shows EWM
needs to evolve,” Acevedo says. “It doesn’t
make any sense to be in the office writing if student Lauren Martin the Instagram
you can go somewhere else. It is important to account she manages for one of her
me to be a freelancer because I get to make clients. Acevedo gives her clients a
my own time.” calendar each month telling what she
For students looking to get into social me- will post and when.
Nomadic Noles // Summer 2018 17