Posted on April 12, 2021 by College of Sciences
#StaffSpotlight
Ryan Schoensee, Senior Communications Specialist, College of Sciences Office of the Dean
Please tell us about yourself.
Hello all! To sum me up, I'm a big nerd who likes to read, write, and play board or video games. Last month, I took on two new jobs, one as the Senior Communications Specialist for the College of Sciences and then another (bit more challenging) role as a new dad to Emma, my firstborn baby girl! She's pretty adorable but has something of a temper, so we're trying to teach her to not give in to her anger because, you know, that leads to the dark side and we don't want a sith baby on our hands!
What did your journey to UTSA look like?
Oh boy. UTSA is pretty much the institution that has had the longest running part of my life! So, I started as a freshman at UTSA in 2007 and went on to graduate in 2012 after pretty much working full-time throughout my college career at fun places like Six Flags, Best Buy, Apple, and on campus at The Writing Center as a tutor and as a supplemental instructor for an economics course.
After I graduated, I took on a temporary writing job for UTSA's university marketing department. I was only there for a couple months but they liked me so much that they decided to double my time in the position. From there, I was hired on as the Communications Specialist at the UTSA Libraries in 2014 and was there for three years writing and editing digital and print publications for the library. In 2017, I took on a new position for the UTSA Enrollment Services Marketing & Communications department in Strategic Enrollment where I wrote and edited content for emails, the web, and publications. Now I'm here with the College of Sciences as their Senior Communications Specialist!
By the way, if you have any cool stories on research, overcoming challenges, student, alumni, or faculty spotlights or interesting donors, please send them my way! I love to write about this stuff. It's what I do.
How would you describe your role in 10 words or less?
Communicator, connector, content curator, News-gatherer, wordsmith, people-person, social media promoter
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy meeting and connecting with students or alumni who are at the beginning of their academic or professional careers. I believe these are very important stages of life and I love hearing about the other things people are passionate about and then writing about it in a story.
How would you spend your ideal Saturday?
It would, of course, have to start with breakfast tacos. Preferably from Las Palapas or Bill Millers. From there it would transition into a mix of the following: watching TV or going on walks with my wife and daughter, reading a sci-fi, fantasy, or professional self-help novel, playing PC games or reading news stories that come up on my Google feed.
What are your book recommendations?
Pretty much any Star Wars novel, the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, and the Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday.
— College of Sciences
