Having a college degree gave me the opportunity to be... well-rounded. Also, the people I met at the university, most of them are still my colleagues now. People I’ve known for years are all in the industry together.

Secada frames higher education less as a credential than as formative social and professional infrastructure. The degree represents “well-rounded” development—exposure to broader skills, perspectives, and discipline—while the university community becomes a durable network that continues to shape his career. The emphasis on colleagues he met in school underscores how creative industries often run on long-term relationships and trust built early, not only on talent. Implicitly, the quote argues for college’s value in expanding one’s capacities and embedding one in a professional ecosystem that can persist for decades.