ANDREW ORTIZ

We had a guest speaker in our class, Andrew Ortiz, who identified as gay spoke to us about his college and professional career experience.

He graduated from Baylor University in 2007 with a degree in journalism and telecommunication.

Andrew is a Public and Government Affairs advisor at Exxon Mobil Corporation, which I am very familiar with being from Baytown. Baytown, Texas is a huge city for the oil and gas company. There are oil and gas plants everywhere you look.

Andrew also worked at the Houston Chronicle. I used to always read the Houston Chronicle when I was younger, so I found that very interesting.

Andrew spoke about how at Exxon he felt very included in regard to his sexuality. He said the Exxon supports him and his identify and he is treated just like everyone else. I found this interesting because the oil and gas field is highly dominated by men who are very “manly”. I love that Andrew feels included and does not experience any discrimination in the workplace.

I really enjoyed hearing about his experience because I also want to go into the public relations field. I don’t know what kind of corporation I would like to do public relations for, so it was very interesting hearing about Andrew’s story and experience in the oil and gas field.