Alumni Feature - Alex Poole '16
As a mass communications major with a focus in radio and TV broadcasting, Alex’s journey to the big leagues started with her own late-night show with WLRA, the Lewis student radio station. While the station originally featured country music, Alex took a chance and played her own pop music, gaining quite the following while doing so.
In addition to being involved in the communications world, Alex was also a part of the Lewis Women’s Basketball team. Her junior year the Women’s basketball team made it all the way to the Elite 8. Playing in the Elite 8 tournament with her closest friends was by far the highlight of her career at Lewis.
Alex would later find that her new-found love for communications as well as her passion for sports would take her more places that she ever believed.
Whether in the communications department or on the court, anyone who knows Alex will say the same thing: Alex is the type of girl to push herself out of her comfort zone. There is no better example of this then when she took an internship with Channel 12 news in Milwaukee.
“When you’re doing radio, it’s easy,” Alex explains. “No one sees you on the radio, but TV is different…I never thought I would want to be in front of the camera.” Despite her trepidations, Alex’s experience at Channel 12 quickly changed her mind. During her internship, she was able to follow different reporters and try a variety of styles of broadcasting, introducing her to the other side of the camera. The more time she spent in front of the camera, the more she could clearly see the progress she was making. By the end of her internship with Channel 12, Alex was a top intern and had new goals in mind.
Alex’s passion for sports provided both a challenge and a potential career path. “Being a woman in sports is hard,” Alex says. “They don’t think you know things.” Thankfully, proving to people that she knows her stuff is one of Alex’s strengths.
While in Milwaukee, she caught a break when she met Bill Michaels, the host for Sports Side Radio. While Alex was setting up for one of Michaels’ events, he overheard her say that she was from Texas and invited her to go with him to Media Day at Super Bowl LI in Texas. She went with him as a floor producer, interviewing players. Alex made it her mission to find a player, no matter who it was, and start asking questions. Because of her determination, she was able to interview both Patriots players and Eagles players. Alex has now gone with Michaels to two consecutive Super Bowl Media Days.
Through her numerous jobs, she has been able to experience all forms of communications and marketing and has had opportunities she never imagined. She attributes her successes to the support of Lewis professors and the tightknit community that the communications department provided.
“You could always walk in and talk to any of your teachers about anything,” Alex recalls. “They became your friends.” To Alex, that meant everything. The positive environment provided by professors with real-life experience motivated Alex to pursue the communications field.
“It was at Lewis that I really figured what I wanted to do” Alex says “and my professors helped me get there.” Professors weren’t the only ones to offer their help. The communications department was so small that it became like a family. Alex’s fellow students were a constant source of motivation as well.
Alex’s time at Lewis provided her with countless skills and tools to further her career and she has big plans to put those skills to work. While currently working a few jobs that dip into different forms of communications and marketing, she hopes to eventually start her own show called PTV- Performance TV. One segment she would like to do is “Fresh Talent Fridays,” featuring people she knows or people from Lewis who DJ and want to get their music made public. She hopes her channel will provide a platform, or support system, for which these aspiring talents need to get noticed, much like Lewis was for her. So far, she is on the road to meeting that goal, through her Super Bowl interviews and her YouTube channels.
Her advice to others is: “When you find what you love, stick with it. Don’t go for a job that’s money-based. Do something you truly love. It can be a long road, but it’s worth it.” Laughing to herself, she says, “It’s true what they say. It’s not what you know, but who you know. So go out there and meet people.”
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