Andrea Vividor
Major: Communications
Hometown: New York City
Coordinator: Jacqueline Sweeney
Year of graduation: 2008

 

 

It’s pretty amazing to be part of a team that can put together a package and a product that people want to see.”

Andrea Vividor doesn’t want to be in the limelight, but she would love to be near it. The communications major has set her sights on a career in the entertainment industry, something she dreamed of as a child, and got a feel for as a publicity assistant for New Line Cinema.

The night she helped work the premiere for Antonio Banderas film “Take the Lead” at a New York City theater was an experience she once only imagined. “Up until that night, it was something I’d only seen on television, but something I always wanted to be a part of.”

The experience of moving in and around the finely attired celebrities and sitting down with the film’s leading man at a media interview was the highlight of her publicity assistant job in the spring of 2006. “It was amazing to be a part of something like that,” she recalled.

Admittedly, hers was a small role. Her primary duties included drumming up press interest in the event, and getting out invitations to celebrities. But the work there, and a junior account executive last year at Peppercom Inc., an alumnus-owned public relations firm, helped her formulate her goals.

“As a child, I always just realized I really enjoyed movies, watching television, and I thought the people on it were so beautiful and very glamorous. As I got older, I realized there was so much that goes on behind all that, and I really want to be a part of it,” she said. “The night we held the premier for Antonio Banderas, I remember feeling like this time I was actually a part of it.”

With both co-op positions, Vividor’s days were often shaped by the mood of the media she was trying to entice. At Peppercom, a company founded by 1977 arts and sciences graduate Steven Cody, she helped handle magazine, newspaper, radio and television coverage of major clients.

One of the best parts of this position emerged from the culture of the workplace. “The company really valued its co-op students, probably because Steven Cody had such a deep understanding of co-op from his time at Northeastern,” she said. “It was great. They very much relied on their co-ops, and hoped that we would use our experience to get hands-on experience that would later help us in our own careers.”

She was drawn to the Northeastern communications program because of its all-inclusiveness. “I figured I could get a lot of experience in a number of different areas,” she explained.

The two co-op positions only cemented her goals to crack into entertainment.

“I don’t necessarily want to be in the limelight,” she said. “But I think it’s so exciting to imagine myself in a career that would make me a part of it. It’s pretty amazing to be part of a team that can put together a package and a product that people want to see.”