Graduate Assistant Spotlight: Alex Keller
8/31/2020 11:23:00 AM | Athletics Department
MACON, Ga. – Over the next few weeks MercerBears.com will be speaking with several graduate assistants in the Mercer University Athletics department. These people work behind the scenes while working toward their master's degree. It's our hope that after reading each of these articles, Bear fans will come to appreciate just how important each person is to Mercer success.
Our next profile focuses on Alex Keller, a Graphic Designer for Mercer Athletics. He sat down with MercerBears.com for a short interview which follows below:
Describe your job description?
As a Graduate Assistant for Mercer, my main role is as a graphic designer for the athletic department. Outside of helping with just the graphic design aspect, I also assist the Mercer Video team in filming and creating videos of our sports teams during workouts and competition. I have also served as an ESPN color commentator for several soccer and volleyball games while at Mercer, and I have also had the pleasure of serving as Toby the Bear on numerous occasions.
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How did you get started in this career field?
I really got into the graphic design side of sports during the tail end of my undergraduate career at Kennesaw State. During undergrad, I was a journalism major and had one goal for my career path and that was to work in sports. I have always been a huge advocate of the saying "if you do what you love you never work a day in your life." My whole life was centered around sports; playing, watching, and talking about anything related to sports. With that in mind, I simply wanted to work in sports in some capacity. After realizing that print journalism is in a decline with the digital age growing exponentially each year, I started to search for other outlets to continue working in sports. This led me to take a position doing video with the Kennesaw State football team, learning how to shoot, edit and post highlights that showcase the team. This led me to pick up the digital design aspect and I have run with it ever since and it has gotten me to where I am now, as a designer for Mercer Athletics.Â
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What's a typical day for you?
Depending on the day, my job, roles, and routines change which is part of the excitement working day to day; each day is something new and different. Typically I will work from 9-5 in the offices at Mercer completing a variety of design requests from the athletic communications and marketing offices. The designs and work range from content for social media, to print advertisements and season ticket designs, to even designing billboards for the highways. Depending on the day, something different is always getting created, and if its not a graphic, then I am helping create videos or helping with the media day shoots with our athletes.
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What are some challenges you face as a graduate assistant, and what are the rewards?
Some challenges I run in to being a Graduate Assistant revolve around a work and life balance as well as a work and school balance. My situation may be a little unique because of the fact that I do not see my job as work because I love what I do. There are days where I will come home and continue to design and learn for fun until late into the night. This is awesome for me but has led to me feeling burnt out and tired some days and I have had to learn to step away and just relax instead of constantly working. This also ties in with another challenge I have and that is balancing work and class work. Especially during the athletic seasons, when we are constantly running around for work, finding time and motivation for class work has been a challenge. Nonetheless, I would not change my experience here for any other. It has taught me to manage my time a lot better and my multi tasking skills have also improved drastically as a result.
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Fun Facts
Our next profile focuses on Alex Keller, a Graphic Designer for Mercer Athletics. He sat down with MercerBears.com for a short interview which follows below:
Describe your job description?
As a Graduate Assistant for Mercer, my main role is as a graphic designer for the athletic department. Outside of helping with just the graphic design aspect, I also assist the Mercer Video team in filming and creating videos of our sports teams during workouts and competition. I have also served as an ESPN color commentator for several soccer and volleyball games while at Mercer, and I have also had the pleasure of serving as Toby the Bear on numerous occasions.
Â
How did you get started in this career field?
I really got into the graphic design side of sports during the tail end of my undergraduate career at Kennesaw State. During undergrad, I was a journalism major and had one goal for my career path and that was to work in sports. I have always been a huge advocate of the saying "if you do what you love you never work a day in your life." My whole life was centered around sports; playing, watching, and talking about anything related to sports. With that in mind, I simply wanted to work in sports in some capacity. After realizing that print journalism is in a decline with the digital age growing exponentially each year, I started to search for other outlets to continue working in sports. This led me to take a position doing video with the Kennesaw State football team, learning how to shoot, edit and post highlights that showcase the team. This led me to pick up the digital design aspect and I have run with it ever since and it has gotten me to where I am now, as a designer for Mercer Athletics.Â
Â
What's a typical day for you?
Depending on the day, my job, roles, and routines change which is part of the excitement working day to day; each day is something new and different. Typically I will work from 9-5 in the offices at Mercer completing a variety of design requests from the athletic communications and marketing offices. The designs and work range from content for social media, to print advertisements and season ticket designs, to even designing billboards for the highways. Depending on the day, something different is always getting created, and if its not a graphic, then I am helping create videos or helping with the media day shoots with our athletes.
Â
What are some challenges you face as a graduate assistant, and what are the rewards?
Some challenges I run in to being a Graduate Assistant revolve around a work and life balance as well as a work and school balance. My situation may be a little unique because of the fact that I do not see my job as work because I love what I do. There are days where I will come home and continue to design and learn for fun until late into the night. This is awesome for me but has led to me feeling burnt out and tired some days and I have had to learn to step away and just relax instead of constantly working. This also ties in with another challenge I have and that is balancing work and class work. Especially during the athletic seasons, when we are constantly running around for work, finding time and motivation for class work has been a challenge. Nonetheless, I would not change my experience here for any other. It has taught me to manage my time a lot better and my multi tasking skills have also improved drastically as a result.
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Fun Facts
- Birthplace: Lawrenceville, GA
- College: Kennesaw State
- Favorite Sports Team other than Mercer:
- MLB: Diamondbacks
- NFL: Panthers
- NBA: Hawks
- NHL: Coyotes
- Favorite Phrase: "Nobody Cares, Work Harder"
- Favorite Social Media: Twitter
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