Jeff Isaac ’25 was back to square one in January 2023.
After two years as a computer science major at Cabrini University, the school was set to close in spring 2024, and Isaac had to find a new one to finish his degree.
A year later, now in his last semester of college as a communication and media studies major at St. Joe’s, Isaac has reinvented himself as an Instagram content creator. He is the man and the camera behind the popular account @Jeff.Flicks, which features photos of on- and off-campus events.
“I don’t want to talk to just robots,” Isaac said of his decision to switch majors. “I want to talk to real people. I want to work with real people. I’m more of a communicative kind of guy. That’s a big key reason why I do what I do.”
This decision wasn’t so simple, however. He said his mother, Soline Isaac, worried about the change since he was already so far into his computer science degree. She also knew how much Isaac loved computers. But she supported his new move.
“I told him to chase what he thought was right for him as he knows himself best,” Soline Isaac said.
Isaac enrolled in a digital photography course during his first semester at St. Joe’s. At first, Isaac was frustrated. He didn’t know how the camera worked, but he didn’t let that deter him. He began to use the men’s club soccer team as test subjects. Eventually, he bought his own gear and began photographing the women’s soccer team.
By March 2024, Isaac was collaborating with the women’s soccer team. His role as a practice player for the women’s team, which he started in the fall of 2023, helped him land the opportunity.
Isaac said women’s soccer head coach Jess Mannella and assistant coaches Jake Dowiak and Tori Corsaro supported him through it all.
“They’ve always looked for things for me to get through my camera, which is always an honor,” Issac said. “I came from grabbing a camera in digital photography, and now I’m doing social media work for a place that I never thought I would.”
Isaac’s friends and roommates Johan Mejia ’25 and Chris Monaco ’25, also transfers from Cabrini, were there with Isaac from the beginning at St. Joe’s. The three met after being paired up with other Cabrini transfer students in Sourin Hall. Now, they live together in a house off campus.
“We were all encouraging him, like ‘You should do it if it’s something you think you’ll be passionate about,’” Monaco said.
In fact, Isaac’s roommates helped him come up with a name for the account.
“He came in our suite at Sourin last year, and he had a different name. He asked us, ‘Do you all think this name is good?’ And we were like, ‘No, change it,’” Mejia said. “We started helping him out, and, eventually, we got to JeffFlicks, and he just stuck with it.”
Isaac said he receives plenty of messages after being at an event with his camera.
“He’s always very excited when he hits a big one,” Mejia said
Isaac’s friends and roommates see how hard he works to achieve that success.
“On the outside, a lot of people see him as a very goofy, funny person, but behind the scenes, he’s in his room for hours, editing pictures, putting things together, making little short videos for the soccer team, and he works very, very hard on it,” Monaco said.
Isaac is looking to do content creation in sports involving schools as his next steps, with hopes of working with Rutgers University’s football team or the soccer team at Princeton University, where he played when he was younger.
No matter what, Issac’s mom is proud of him for what he has been able to do this past year.
“He didn’t let the Cabrini closing break him,” Soline Isaac said. “He turned the unseen closing into a blessing with the help of Hawk Hill taking him in.”
