Where Hobbies, Education, and Career Collide

For Summer Velasco, finding inspiration for her education and career decisions was as easy as hitting a drive-through window to order some tacos after a busy afternoon of binge watching her favorite shows … with ads. While some people find the constant breaks in their entertainment loop annoying, it was the advertising that inspired Velasco to pursue a bachelor’s degree in marketing at Texas A&M University–Central Texas.

“I was watching the Taco Bell commercials, and I just thought they were great,” she said with a grin. “The Doritos Locos Tacos commercials. The Live Mas … just the whole brand. I want to do something like that. I want to curate a brand in the way they have. That would be the dream.”

Although she’s never owned a Spanish-speaking, taco-craving Chihuahua, the self-proclaimed “Army brat” has embraced marketing as an avenue through which she can combine her love of the arts with a legitimate career.

“It’s all about getting people to see something and have an opinion that maybe you helped them form about it,” Velasco said. “All of that is so interesting and there’s kind of like a psychological aspect to it, too.”

Velasco was born on Ft. Hood and spent the first 15 years of her life moving around the world with her parents who were both in the military. California holds a special place in her heart as her favorite place to live, but the flavor of life in Germany also landed dramatically on her palate.

“I love the chocolate in Germany,” she said. “And their pretzels … the pretzels are really good. People use beer batter here, so I don’t think there’s big difference, but they’re just fluffier and really good.”

Just reading her story, one might think Summer makes decision based on food choices — her work portfolio does include artistic photographs of cookie dough that she shot for an internship — but the engaging, dynamic 25-year-old exhibits a love and passion for the artistic side of life.

“I love photography,” she said. “You’re taking pictures of real things, not coming with something new. That makes it different from other art.”

A writer of poetry and short stories, Velasco was also involved in dance from the age of 4 through high school. She also enjoys painting and developing graphic art skills that she hopes to use in marketing.

“It’s simple. It’s fun. It’s so creative, just coming up with the graphics, the color schemes, the fonts. Everything about it is just fun for me,” she said. “In the future, I would like to get a degree or a certification in graphic design.”

Having fully embraced her creative side, Summer admits that she found her inspiration a little later in life than traditional college students. She was homeschooled and upon graduation tried the traditional college route, moving off to attend school away from home. She quickly found out, however, that wasn’t for her.

“I ended up coming back home. It was too far away for me,” she said.

Upon her return, Velasco took courses at Temple College and Central Texas College, both serving as partner schools with A&M–Central Texas. When she had completed her community college hours, she was easily able to transfer her credits and enroll in the marketing program. Her mother, Darlene Velasco, is also attending A&M–Central Texas and she has an older brother who graduated from the university. Darlene is scheduled to graduate in December 2024 and Summer will complete her education in May 2025.

“My whole family are Warriors,” she grinned.

Summer said her education has been enlightening, learning about aspects of marketing that most people don’t really see or understand, and getting hands-on experience by putting her education into practice.

“I know the things I’m learning in class will help me outside of the classroom,” Velasco said. “We did an email drip campaign. We learned how to use search engine optimization (SEO) with Google trends. It was so interesting. That’s pretty neat that people are actually using the things that I’m learning.”

With her eyes set on graduating in May, Summer said her ideal job would be to focus on digital marketing, but she understands that field is “saturated.” Instead, she says she will focus on finding a career in traditional marketing. And while it may not be Spanish-speaking or taco-craving, Summer does actually have a Chihuahua, but she doesn’t recommend using it in a commercial shoot as the small canine tends to be a bit “mean.” Still, she hopes that one day she can return to what first inspired her.

“I want to make commercials for Taco Bell,” she laughed. “That’s the dream.”