Alex Cascio ’15 grew up hearing his mother, Jeri Cascio ’87, retelling tales of her commute between Daytona and to the University of Central Florida, where she earned her finance degree. A generation later, Alex found himself attending his mother’s beloved alma mater.
Cascio has always had a passion for film and capturing special moments that told a compelling story, but it wasn’t until he attended UCF that he realized he could parlay this hobby into a career path. While taking classes in marketing, advertising and accounting, he asked himself, why not combine business and storytelling? He switched his major from business administration to human communication/digital media, and forged his own path. This life-changing decision allowed him to go back to the creative space he loved so much, which eventually led to a successful career path in digital media.
During his time as a student, Alex worked full-time as a salesperson for a web design company and also developed his own start-up company, Vibrant Media Productions (VMP). Knowing that he could earn money to pay for expensive production-level equipment and gear that he needed for his start-up provided the motivation he needed to succeed at his commission-only sales position.
“Starting up VMP was quite challenging while being a full-time student,” Cascio recalls. “Taking the plunge and fully committing to my company forced me to grow the business. I can remember countless times having to step outside of the classroom to take conference calls with clients and pretending to be in ‘my office.’”
VMP has seen substantial growth in the few years since Cascio’s graduation, and Cascio, in partnership with his father, has worked with well-known clients like Microsoft, AT&T and Twitter. Cascio was even able to reconnect with UCF through a project with the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities.
“On this shoot, we had the opportunity to collaborate with UCF on producing short interview segments, highlight films, instructor presentation videos, and photos,” said Cascio. “These events focused on subjects such as active learning and accelerating transfer success for students.”
Cascio credits his professional and personal successes to his experience at UCF and support of his fiancée and UCF alumna, Chloe Piersall ’15. His advice for current students is “try to absorb the information from the classes you’re taking, because you would be surprised how helpful the information can be in your professional life.” He also emphasized the importance of networking both on and off campus, which, in his experience, led to different and exciting professional projects.
In 2018, Cascio launched the VMP Student Filmfest to help provide winning student films with a cash award that can go toward the student’s continued education and help pay for production equipment. Alex hopes that the VMP Student FilmFest will give students an opportunity to showcase their work, but also allow them to set themselves apart when interviewing for jobs or internships.
“Our VMP Filmfest was created to help give students a platform to showcase their creativity,” stated Reuben Rogak ’14, chief editor of VMP. “Alex understood firsthand what it was like as a digital media student and the financial burden of equipment costs and he is excited to play a role in offering an opportunity to current Knights to help with their financial costs.”
With every project that Cascio works on, he always remembers advice he received from his father: “Never compromise quality. If you truly want your work to stand out from the competition, you have to put in the time and maximum effort.” Charge on, Alex Cascio!