By, Emily Roland ‘21

May 5th, 2021

Rebecca Fontanilla graduated from USF with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the spring of 2016. She is now a program manager at Facebook supporting Instagram and Whatsapp. She is from the South Bay and prior to her role at Facebook, she was a program coordinator and manager at Google. We met with Rebecca in March to learn more about her experience as a student in the Psychology Department at USF and how she has used that to get to her role today.

Fontanilla started out as a Psychology major with a Neuroscience minor, which she chose when she realized that adding a Neuroscience minor would not be adding too many new classes to her workload- a mindset I am sure a handful of us current Psychology students have had. However, she soon realized that she was not extremely interested in the courses she was taking and would have to continue to take to complete that minor, so upon self-reflection about her interests, she decided to drop her minor.

At the end of her sophomore year, she was trying to find Psychology internships and was unable to find one. Not only did she not know where to look, but she even considered changing her entire major in the process. The uncertainty she experienced paired with the difficulty she encountered while looking for internships, along with pressure from herself and at times, her family, to set a career plan led her to look into changing her major. She explored other options, such as becoming a nursing major, as that major has a fixed career path- whereas Psychology does not. However, in the end, because of her deep interest in Psychology, she decided to stick with her Psychology major- a decision she is still happy with today. Rebecca recalled her decision making process to continue her undergrad education in Psychology and states that while she knew she was not interested in becoming a counselor, therapist, or Psychologist, she would rather have a major that she thoroughly enjoys learning about, rather than a major she is not as passionate about.

In her senior year, she decided to add her entrepreneurship and innovation minor after consulting with her CASA advisor- Rebecca was not sure what she wanted to do with her career, and through her entrepreneurship minor, she was able to expose herself to different opportunities in the corporate tech world as a Psychology Major. With this minor, she took a practicum course, similar to Psych practicum, where her credits came from three separate internships. This course connected her with local companies and startups looking for student interns- she states that this is what really leveraged her post graduation. In her practicum class, she was the only non business-related major. Rebecca recalls an interaction with her practicum professor, who asked her about the connection between psych and business. She remembers replying, “When people go into business or tech, it is about relationship management and helping people. As a Psych major you have a better foundation of how to interact with others. You need to gain the trust of others to be able to work well with them. That is how I made the connection between Psych and Tech.”

In my own personal experience as an upperclassman in the Psychology major who is not looking to become a therapist, social worker, or psychologist, at times it can feel out of place to think about a career post graduation while being surrounded by others who are so clinically tracked. In my own personal experience as a Psychology major aiming for a corporate career, I have noticed a lot of the courses we learn within the Psychology major have a clinical perspective, which is essential to our degree, but at times not relevant to other careers you can explore with a Psychology degree.

Fontanilla attributes her time management, accountability, and her ability to work well with others and meet deadlines successfully to skills she acquired as a Psychology major at USF. She states that rather than one particular psychology course’s material that she identifies using in her work currently, what stands out most as skills she’s transferred into her role at Facebook today, is working so closely with her classmates and professors in a collaborative manner during her time in the department. In addition, she remarked that being a Psychology major at USF calls upon students to engage in a lot of self reflection, empathy, and understanding. In turn, being a Psychology major allows you to learn more about yourself and who you are. Fontanilla learned a great deal about herself through being a Psych major- she states that as you develop in your career, you will excel if you know yourself and what your boundaries are.

Rebecca Fontanilla made her own path within the tech industry and believes that Psychology is a great major that you are able to steer in your own desired direction. Being students in the Bay Area, specifically in San Francisco, we are exposed to many avenues in the tech industry. Luckily, as Psychology majors, she reminds us that we have an advantage- we know people! We are taught to understand others in many perspectives, without biases, and with understanding- which can be some of the biggest assets a candidate can have entering the corporate tech world.