“When I was first hired as a Canes Creator, I remember going into one of our first content pitch meetings and showing my supervisor dorm tour videos I kept seeing from the University of Tampa on my TikTok For You Page,” said UM senior Balaj Raza.
What started as a simple social media pitch transformed Raza, a public relations and journalism double major, into one of UM’s most recognizable student content creators.
The Canes Creator program hires students to create content for the University’s social media accounts. The program’s goal is for students to create a portfolio and gain more experience in the industry.
Through viral dorm tours, journalism skills, marketing roles and even a barista gig at Honey Veil, Raza spent his four years building his own brand, which is now taking him to Columbia University in the fall.
Filming the dorm tour series “completely changed [his] experience at UM,” helping him land his marketing internship with the City of Miami Beach and opening doors to exciting opportunities.
“It also helped me build connections across campus, and it’s been really cool being recognized by students because of something I created,” he said.
Raza will begin his master’s program at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies, where he plans to study strategic communication with a concentration in digital marketing. He attributes his many leadership roles and extracurriculars to helping him decide this path.
“All of those experiences showed me that I want to build a career in digital marketing, media strategy and brand storytelling,” he said.
In particular, Raza feels that joining the Campus Creator Club — a club focused on connecting campus creators with brands — when it first began in his junior year opened his eyes to new possibilities in social media and marketing.
“Through the club, I learned more about influencer marketing, brand partnerships and the business side of content creation,” he said. “It helped me better understand how creators work with brands and opened my eyes to opportunities like PR packages, partnerships and long-term brand relationships.”
Raza also emphasized that his experiences with the University of Miami Television, The Miami Hurricane and the Society of Professional Journalists have shaped how he approaches marketing and content creation.
All three of these organizations taught him how to connect with audiences and relay important messages — key elements of journalism but also marketing.
“Some of my articles, including pieces about navigating Miami as a gay student and the challenges of finding gluten-free dining options on campus, gained a lot of attention on TikTok, Instagram and even Yik Yak,” Raza said. “At the end of the day, both journalism and marketing are about understanding people and telling stories that matter.”
Apart from campus organizations, Raza found a real-world marketing lesson through his barista job at Honey Veil, a matcha café founded by two sisters who attend UM.
He highlighted that posting content multiple times a day is challenging for most large brands, but the Honey Veil team pulls it off.
“Watching how intentional they are with branding and social media has been really inspiring because content creation is something I’m passionate about too,” said Raza.
While Raza has been incredibly successful at UM and made the most of every opportunity, he also discussed how he faced plenty of challenges and rejections in his college career that forced him to pivot or change how he approached a problem.
“I’ve heard ‘no’ far more times than I’ve heard ‘yes.’ I’ve faced rejection, setbacks and moments where things didn’t go the way I planned,” he said. “But I kept pushing forward, and I think that persistence is what got me here. Everything really does work out the way it’s meant to, and I’m living proof that rejection can sometimes redirect you toward something even better.”