“When I was living in Mexico, I was either selling chips and Coke at my grandma’s convenience store or promoting my uncle’s cabins in the woods,” recalls Leon Arceo, reminiscing about his early encounters with entrepreneurship as a middle schooler. Born in the U.S., Arceo moved back to his mother’s original country at age 12 before relocating stateside in time for high school. During those formative years in Mexico, he became immersed in his family’s work, which sparked an interest in business—one of many such interests that he has cultivated.
Raised among a family of entrepreneurs, Arceo embraced the daily dynamics of selling goods in his grandparents’ convenience stores, as well as the allure of marketing cozy cabins in cool mountainous getaways in the town of Mazamitla. Working at the town’s shops of his grandparents and helping spread the word about the high-altitude hideaways of his uncle, Arceo learned firsthand what it meant to generate value and community engagement through business.
“I remember I was sitting down to do my applications to colleges and thinking that I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says. “But when I thought about what I did throughout life, I was either selling a product, promoting a product, or just helping a business run from beginning to end. I decided that I wanted to study business, and so I applied to McIntire.”
He came to UVA from Alexandria, VA, and was accepted to the Commerce School, where he concentrated in Marketing and Accounting. Significant mentorship from faculty proved instrumental in refining Arceo’s aspirations. Courses with Professors Carrie Heilman and Gary Ballinger imparted crucial insights: Heilman’s teachings in Promotions emphasized the alignment of creative work with brand goals, while Ballinger stressed the value in celebrating achievements amid a life of relentless pursuit. The interactions helped Arceo to define a vision for how he wants to live his own life: with a career path dedicated to community enrichment and ethical business practices, setting the stage for his aspirations in marketing.
In addition to the subject-specific education he received at McIntire, Arceo credits the Comm School with helping him overcome his shyness, level up his presentation skills, and be an expert collaborator. “When it came to presentations, before I got into Comm, my face would get red, I would stutter, and I wouldn’t be able to speak,” he says. But things changed after that third-year experience. “To this day, people come up to me, and they congratulate me on my [Integrated Core] presentation, because I was engaging with the audience. I really thank Marcia Pentz for that—she was a great Communication professor,” he says. “ICE as a whole taught me how to work in a team, but also how to work with people you don’t really connect with. After McIntire, I really don’t see myself having difficulty with working with anyone, because I’ve learned how to give constructive feedback in a respectful way, how to manage my time with everyone, and how to distribute tasks.”
But getting back to that diversity of interests: His boundless curiosity and skill-building underscore what amounts to truly eclectic interests. Arceo’s studies and work with UVA student organizations embody a dedication to fusing strategy with aesthetics and leadership. As such, he also pursued a minor in Design from the Architecture School.
“I figured out what architecture was through [the TV show] ‘How I Met Your Mother,’” he says, thinking back to when it dawned on him as a young boy that there were people responsible for creating the built environment. “I would make little blueprints as a kid, and I thought that I would be able to spend my entire life drawing these buildings.”
With age, realizations about the job market, and Arceo reconsidering his possible career options, architecture no longer professionally held the appeal it once did. But that didn’t completely quell the fascination.
“I never really wanted to fully let go of it—so I came back to it,” he explains, affirming the satisfaction of nurturing long-held passions through academics. He says that there’s been a way for him to use the foundational creative skills he cultivated in his Design classes in McIntire Marketing courses. But perhaps more importantly, he’s learned the following lesson from those courses in the Architecture School: “What you create impacts people. You can say you want to make a beautiful building, but are you wasting resources? What communities are you impacting? Who are you uplifting?
“Whether you’re making a marketing campaign or you’re doing accounting for someone, you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing your due diligence and that you’re being ethical,” he says. “It’s made me very conscious of the work that I want to do.”
Active engagement at McIntire has facilitated leadership mirroring Arceo’s diverse passions. As Co-President of the Latinx Student Network and leader of his fraternity, La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., he wholeheartedly offered his service and leadership, merging his personal interests with community impact. His extensive work for The Cavalier Daily also served as a creative outlet, where he extended his passion for journalism through writing, translating, and photography, roles he’s persistently pursued since his high school days.
Internship experiences further diversified Arceo’s practical knowledge. Time at Johnson & Johnson, EY, and CRC Companies provided diverse perspectives across finance and marketing landscapes, ultimately affirming his preference for marketing due to its potent blend of creativity and impact. “I finally did marketing last summer, and I absolutely loved it,” Arceo says about his role at CRC, where he worked with the construction company’s marketing team, a position that also employed him for separate special projects, such as creating marketing videos for a Charlottesville-based school for children with special learning needs.
Looking towards the future, Arceo envisions thriving within a marketing agency in a space where creativity meets community engagement. The skills honed at McIntire in teamwork and presentations have instilled confidence, empowering Arceo to embrace collaboration with the same enthusiasm and adaptability that characterize his upbringing. “I feel like marketing is a way to encourage people by bringing certain things to light,” he says, referencing his internship at CRC: “Marketing is so multifaceted; when I was promoting the Oakland School, I was connecting parents to the right school to help their children. I never thought that marketing could be that.”
