Scholarships can come from strange, unexpected places sometimes, and students may find themselves surprised by the organizations that give them aid. But what if the company that awarded you money suddenly emailed you out of the blue and wanted you to be in a professionally made commercial? That was the reality for one NC State student over the weekend who received the opportunity to tell his story from none other than Colgate — the toothpaste brand.
Emanuel Cruz, a freshman studying nuclear engineering, found himself staring into the face of a camera with professional cinematographers directing him this weekend for a two-minute commercial about the Haz La U, a Colgate-Palmolive scholarship that’s name means “make the university.”
The Haz La U is offered by the Colgate-Palmolive toothpaste company exclusively to those of Hispanic decent. Cruz was filmed by the production company Cinema Giants, who asked Cruz to tell his personal story of growing up as a gay, Hispanic child born into a low-income family. The commercial follows his journey from his hometown of Sanford, North Carolina, to NC State’s nuclear engineering program.
“It’s really about highlighting the students and their journey,” said Jessy Terrero, the director of the commercial and owner of Cinema Giants. “There is no Colgate product in the piece. It’s really about highlighting the students. The content will play on various forms of social media, on YouTube, Colgate’s website and around the Internet.”
Cruz’s story is the second of these productions that Cinema Giants has shot. Terrero said Cruz’s story is acting as a test to hopefully film more of the Haz La U stories in the future.
Terrero is most known for directing music videos and has worked with artists such as 50 Cent, Puff Daddy and Snoop Dogg. He also directed the movie “Soul Plane,” starring Kevin Hart, and most recently the music video for the song “Promise” by Kid Ink and featuring Fetty Wap.
“I am of Dominican decent, so I’m Latino,” Terrero said. “I always made it a point to want to do stuff in that market. I feel like I integrated myself in the Spanish market because I wanted to help make a change on the visual standpoint. When this came about, it was something positive in the Latino community, so it made sense to do.”
Terrero and his team filmed Cruz at various locations on campus including the Student Involvement Center, the Free Expression Tunnel, the Burlington Engineering Lab as well as Cruz’s own bedroom back in Sanford, North Carolina. The production used Cruz’s friends as stand-ins, playing students and classmates in the background of scenes.
“We gave him the opportunity to just bring in his friends, as opposed to casting, to keep it authentic to who he is,” Terrero said. “The people in the nuclear lab will be people studying in the same field, and the professors are some of his actual professors. He is not an actor, and we don’t want it to feel forced or fake. We want to try and capture him in his truest form so that a young kid that’s maybe going through a similar struggle sees that there’s a better path to take.”
Cruz said that he first found the Haz La U scholarship during his junior year of high school through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, an organization that aggregates Hispanic scholarship and financial aid opportunities for students.
“I had to get on the ball and start looking for scholarships,” Cruz said. “You have to be specific when looking, so I searched for Hispanic scholarships, then Hispanic scholarships that do volunteering and all these other things. I knew I could stand out in it. I had over 400 hours of community service and a lot of leadership positions in high school.”
Cruz said he had to write at least seven essays during the application process, and Colgate and Cinema Giants later used these essays when trying to pick out of the 147 winners whose story to tell. Cruz applied in the community service category and got second place, which awarded him $1,500 from the Haz La U.
Cruz has worked with organizations and events such as Salvation Army, Toys for Tots and Leo Clubs, an organization centered around youth community service. He was also president and founder of his school’s Gender Alliance Club, president of his school’s International Club, a college advising intern, an ESL tutor and captain of his Quiz Bowl team.
Cruz said he felt somewhat awkward while being filmed but that he had a lot of fun while doing it. He said he didn’t know what to expect because he had never been in front of a camera before.
“I was sort of frightened and excited,” Cruz said. “Our first shoot was in the Free Expression Tunnel. I was just walking through the tunnel and people would walk by and see this big camera. We filmed for an hour and a half, and occasionally I would see a friend walk by and beg them not to judge me.”
The entirety of the filming took place across Friday and Saturday. Cruz said he filmed until midnight Saturday and that he actually fell asleep on set. The commercial was filmed in English and Spanish, with Cruz reading his lines in both.
“One of the producers said to me, ‘You’re going to be the big man on campus,’ and I said, ‘I don’t want that; I just want to make a commercial to help everybody,’” Cruz said. “[The commercial] is aimed at Hispanic youth — for them to achieve their goals and go to college. I’ve been wanting to give back to my community, and I was really glad to be given this opportunity.”
Part of the commercial covers Cruz’s sexuality as a gay man. Cruz said he was not afraid to be publicly open about his sexuality because he is comfortable with himself.
“It’s good to represent both the gay and Hispanic community,” Cruz said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do, to be a spokesperson for both.”
Cruz said his extended family does not know he is gay and that the commercial may come as a surprise to them. However, Cruz said he thinks the experience will be amusing and that he is not worried about people’s reactions.
“It will be a funny surprise,” Cruz said. “I’ll find it hysterical.”
