ORLANDO, Fla. – Affectionately known as “Smiley” to friends and coworkers alike, Alexia Braun leads with kindness wherever she goes. That attitude has led her to pursue her dream career thanks to hard work and opportunity.

Braun started her journey in the hospitality industry by working in restaurants, where she quickly discovered her passion for serving others. This inspired her to turn her love for hospitality into a career, so she transferred from Florida Gulf Coast University, where she majored in journalism, to UCF Rosen College as a hospitality management major.

While Braun already had a passion for hospitality, she soon discovered that she could pursue a career in another lifelong passion – conventions. Braun, an avid cosplayer since 2010, has been to over 50 different conventions and found herself dreaming of managing them – a dream that would soon become a reality.

Discovering this possibility, she switched her major from hospitality management to event management. Braun excelled academics, highlighted by her induction into three different honor societies, and picked up essential lifelong skills through her studies and support from faculty mentors. Among those mentors include Rosen College Associate Instructor Deborah Weissberg, described by Braun as a “beacon of kindness,” and Associate Instructor Steven Brinkman, who created many opportunities for her and always had “great advice” when it came to pursuing her dream career.

All of this led to the opportunity of a lifetime in March of 2023: working for Spooky Empire – a popular Florida-based horror and science fiction convention. Originally planning to just volunteer, Braun decided to take “a leap of faith” and submit her resume to the volunteer coordinator to see if they had any opportunities to get more involved. It didn’t take long (five minutes, to be exact) for the coordinator to call and ask if she would like to intern with them instead. She was over the moon.

She happily accepted and began her journey with Spooky Empire. At the end of her internship, Braun’s supervisors were so impressed with her performance that they surprised her with a gift that many people can only dream of: The opportunity to spend the day with her favorite celebrity – Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. They also took the opportunity to introduce her to the Registration & Will Call team, the department of which she soon became manager.

After excelling as an intern, Spooky Empire started moving Braun around to different management positions across the company to gain a full understanding of every area of convention management. She hopes to continue her journey with Spooky Empire and eventually become a part of their leadership team. But her ultimate goal? To become the owner and operator of her own convention. With the hard work and success she’s been able to achieve in just a year and a half, the future looks bright.

Braun is proof that kindness can get you anywhere. And when you combine that kindness with opportunity, the possibilities are limitless.

If you’re looking to jumpstart your career in the events industry and combine your skills with opportunity, explore Rosen College’s event management degree online or visit us at our upcoming Open House on October 18th to speak with some of Alexia’s mentors about how you can also pursue your dream career.