Adam Rubin, the Public Relations Director, is the man behind the Commack School District’s media and our school photographer, but there is much more about his life that students may not know.
He never aspired to be a photographer, but growing up he was best at math leading him into Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania as he got older. He ended up discovering journalism and was drawn in.
“I ended up going to Business School, but I joined my college paper and got hooked by journalism. But when I was younger, I was more mathematical in class, probably something related to those fields of business or math [for a career],” said Rubin.
Being a sport enthusiast, he planned to find a job that somehow “married sports and business.” He may not have landed a business job, but he became a sports reporter and even worked for the New York Mets.
He interned at the WFAN sports radio station and was on his school paper. He eventually found photography through journalism.
“I was a beat reporter, so I was on the road 170 days a year. The first half of that time, the 15 years, I covered the Mets for the New York Daily News. And then the second-half, I covered the Mets for ESPN and would write articles for either the New York Daily News or ESPN.com,” said Rubin.
Over the years, the internet became more advanced and less people were interested in buying a newspaper. Due to this, Rubin was open to other careers and opportunities that were still in his field. He switched to Public Relations, or known as PR, and taught classes at multiple universities, such as Hofstra.
“Before I came to Commack, I worked in college athletics for […] seven years. So I worked at both Long Island University and Stony Brook University as associate athletic director overseeing the content for the athletics website, all the game broadcasts, all their social media,” said Rubin.
As the public relations director, he ensures that broadcast channels convey positive news about the district. He also manages social media, writes stories, makes videos and sends out important information to the parents and students.
“We’re doing photos that go on the social media, videos that go on the social media, also on the video boards around the school. Even when the messages have to go out to the families because there’s a school weather delay, or an announced school board meeting is coming up,” said Rubin.
Rubin also teaches a sports public relations course during the fall semester at Hofstra University. Teaching the course has helped him tremendously because he brings in guest speakers and gets to learn more from all of them.
“I bring in guest speakers mostly by Zoom, who were kind of leaders in the field. Last semester we had David Wright, the former Met, talk to the class. We had the head of communications for the National Hockey League. We had the head of communications for the Red Bulls, the Major League Soccer team. We had a whole bunch of other guests who were really the elite people in the field,” said Rubin.
He mostly spends all of his day going around to different schools in the district and captures daily moments. He uses a Canon camera, by photographer Anthony Causi, who was his mentor. All of the schools in the district work with him and tell him all the events at an earlier time. Even though his hours may seem long, he definitely enjoys it and doesn’t notice the time go by.
“Well, the good thing about my job is that I kind of blink and it’s the end of the day because I’m always bouncing around among the schools. I know they see me a lot at the high school, but I’m also at all the other seven schools as well, creating content. I try to get to three, four or five schools a day. Depending on what events are going on,” said Rubin.
Looking back at the photos taken throughout the day, choosing which to post is not always easy.
“You go through your photos and you pick the best photos from the events in your mind. [Such as] what’s the most artistic photos that tell the story and […] you pick what you think are top 10 images, trying to have as many different people represented as possible,” said Rubin.
Matthew Salmon, the coach of the baseball team who has worked with Rubin, states that capturing these moments are memorable for his players.
“I think it definitely enhances it, I mean playing a high school sport with all your friends, people you grew up with, once you get into college and play sports beyond high school you don’t get that feel of the people who you were good friends with and I think those pictures kind of help these kids remember their childhood. Even as they get older, I think it’s just awesome for both the players and the players’ families to have these kids that they see from when they were little kids until now in high school in the same pictures together,” said Salmon.
Rubin’s work can be found on Instagram @commacksd. 
