Photo Credit: Alexia Croll
Old Westbury alumni Moses Nunez Jr. paid the university a visit to share his experience and insights during his time in undergrad. This experience propelled him to heights in the media industry beyond his wildest dreams.
He recounts his struggles as a young college student navigating his home and personal life. His father had dropped out of college, working overtime at an Entenmann’s food plant, while his mother had been battling an illness and babysitting to earn a living wage.
Living in Brentwood posed many challenges for Nunez. He had spent a lot of his time working at Lowe’s to support his family, until the loss of his home, couch-hopping, and sleeping in cars landed him at his cousin’s house. The displacement of his family and financial insecurity had been a major pitfall, but he remained hopeful.
After he obtained his associate’s from Suffolk County Community College, he contemplated his next move. After realizing the cold weather in Buffalo was unsuitable, he finally settled on SUNY Old Westbury.
After receiving money from financial aid, he was able to live on campus and obtain a studio apartment for him and his father. He interned at CNBC as a short form programming intern, then later applied to SB Nation, a sports media brand, where he edited video footage to be released for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Nunez originally wanted to be an actor, and recalls instances where he would recite The Lion King verbatim in front of his family, which is where his love for media began. “Even if I can’t be an actor, I would love to be behind, or in front of, the camera”, said Nunez. His father’s involvement in broadcasting and his love for sports prompted his sense of urgency for working in media.
Upon graduating from Old Westbury in 2017, Nunez says he sent out applications to over 50 jobs and internships daily over the course of 3-4 months, receiving constant rejection until he ran into someone who worked alongside him at Sports New York (SNY). Nunez had worked as a production assistant at SNY, where he oversaw infographics and tickers for live games.
Afterwards, he moved on to NBC where he did operations coordinating. “NBC was like my actual first real job” he began, “I learned so much about master control, I learned about broadcast, I learned about scrubbing, like, if there’s an issue with video, broadcast integrity, FCC regulations, just all this different stuff.”
He would later transfer these skills into his next role at NYC Media, where he continued in master control as a part time contractor under an agency. After concerns surrounding job security at NYC Media, he ended up with interviews at both ABC News and Major League Baseball (MLB) as a broadcasting engineer.
Nunez accepted a position at MLB where he oversaw broadcasting operations. “If there’s a ballpark phone that’s down we fix it, if there’s an issue with the dugout cameras, we fix it,” said Nunez.
His work in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) won him the Outstanding Digital Innovation category for his work as Associate Producer for MLB Home Run Derby’s “MLB XR” at the 43rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards in May 2022. When asked about how he felt about the win, he laughed and said, “I’m not going to lie, it’s probably the closest I’ve ever felt to winning a championship.”
He had always wanted to win an Emmy or an Oscar, but gave up on that idea once he began working for NBC. He was in disbelief once he learned he was nominated, and consistently relives the shock everyday he sees his award. “My boss is a great guy, but I never thought I would hug him,” he continued. “I ran into one of the meeting rooms and I called my mom and I was crying… honestly it was one of the best feelings I think I’ve ever had.”
He credits professors such as Karl Grossman and Joe Manfredi as pillars of his success. After undergoing a concussion during his senior year before his final exams, he recalls feeling unprepared as he was undergoing recovery, where he highlights Prof. Mattson was a main advocate for his accommodation. When asked about what he found at Old Westbury, he stated, “The nurturing here was top notch. When I came in here I knew I had a skill set I could use outside in the real world.”
He credits the institution for giving him a new found sense of confidence and encourages media students to continuously utilize their resources. “Internships and networking are the two biggest things you can possibly do,” he said. “Every place I went to, I didn’t see it as ‘going to a place’, I saw it as a networking opportunity. If I was in college and there was someone coming to speak, I would ask them ‘hey, can I add you on LinkedIn? If there was an alumni dinner, ‘hey, here’s my resume, can you tell me what you think?” He stresses the importance of building and maintaining important connections, and keeps in touch with the individuals that helped him along the way. “It’s who you know that gets you the job, it’s what you know that keeps that job.”
