Internships Propel Kean Graduate with Creative Spark to Career in Video Production

Jordie Inoa ’24 has dabbled in graphic design since he was a child, but it was a series of internships that led him to his first full-time job as a video editor after graduating from Kean’s Michael Graves College. 

As a student, Inoa held one of those internships with Kean lecturer Deborah Ceballos, who owns a Westfield creative design studio. Ceballos encouraged him to change majors from graphic design to advertising after she recognized his creative ability to come up with campaigns. 

“Professor Ceballos fostered my growth and insisted I try an advertising design bootcamp in the summer that she was hosting,” said Inoa, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kean. “I bit the bullet and realized she was right; I had untapped potential in that realm of advertising. I made the switch and haven’t looked back.” 

After he graduated, Inoa got his final internship at the video production company Link 9, in Jersey City, through the competitive Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP) run by the 4A’s Foundation, which supports diversity in the marketing industry. His application included a video that stood out from the rest – about dealing with missing out on a MAIP internship the year before.  

“I immediately saw how creative he was, and once he got rolling, he impressed everyone else in the company as well,” said his supervisor, Andy Pidanick. “Not only is he a talented visual storyteller, he has an infectious, easy-going attitude.” 

In the internship, Inoa created video pitches, reels and animations – and was also featured in an article in Ad Age magazine. From there, he landed a job with the firm, now called Omnicom Production, where he works as a video editor. 

“My first assignment was to create reels highlighting the company’s best work and to my joy, I impressed the team,” Inoa said. “I was always interested in video editing and content creation and a lot of my campaigns are videocentric, so it made a lot of sense for me to end up in a production agency.” 

Inoa said he found his creative spark early in life.  

“My path started when I discovered Photoshop as a kid sometime around 2012. My brother had a copy, and I used it to edit portraits of characters in video games,” he said. 

Inoa began studying graphic design while in high school at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools. Among his successes was a project creating graphics for a historical marker in a park that earned praise from local historians at the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission. 

At Kean, Inoa interned with Ceballos at Square Melon Communications, where he created graphic designs for menus and poster mock-ups for experiential brand campaigns. 

Ceballos appreciated the skill and creativity evident in Inoa’s work. 

“Jordie is relentless in his pursuit of creativity and achievement,” Ceballos said. “He sees his creative visions through from concept to completion – conducting his own research, finding insights, strategizing and even writing, recording and editing original music for his commercials. But what truly sets Jordie apart is his generosity, deep sense of connection to others and unwavering values.” 

Inoa had other internships as a student at Kean, too.  

First, with the help of professor Henry Stankiewicz, he landed a role as a video production intern at American Octopus Productions in Union. Then, he was lead student researcher for a group of students that created a 3D VR visualization of 1900s Nantucket for installation at the Nantucket Historical Museum. At the same time, he also completed a Design Studio Practicum internship at Michael Graves and helped cultivate an in-person event for the college’s Thinking Creatively conference. 

Inoa said he is excited about the different ways he might use his talents going forward. 

“I hope my career evolves in the production space, and I can build something on the side in the future, whether it involves content creation or my own little agency,” he said. “Maybe I’ll end up editing movies one day or loop back into videocentric art direction. Regardless, I’m comfortable I’ll be good, and I’m beyond grateful.”