By Keya Nijhawan
Senior Ryan Ohde found himself twiddling his thumbs with his college counselor, Ms. Vaughn, last spring, trying to think of ways to fill a gap in his schedule. Ryan is interested in doing something related to the sports business, specifically marketing, so he wanted to find a way to show colleges his dedication.
Fortunately for Ohde, we have an Ade.
Mr. Adekale Ande, Ade, is known for running the Lovett Athletics Instagram, with sensational reels and graphics of athletes. So, over the spring semester of his junior year, Ryan, with the help of his college counselor and Mr. Boswell, created an internship, which he has taken part in this semester during his independent study period as well as at sporting events like football games.
Going into this internship, Ryan already had a lot of respect for what Ade does and knew what he wanted to focus on during this class. “We decided we wanted to focus a lot on photography and the editing aspect of it,” Ryan explained. He began by going to football games and taking photos. Ade chose to have him focus on the student section because it is a big aspect of the games and the culture at Lovett.
When Ryan meets with Ade during his independent study period, they mostly go over the editing process and formats on Instagram. As Ryan has continued to learn from Ade, he now knows he wants to do something similar to what he does, even if he’s not yet sure if he wants to work in a high school environment or be part of a bigger company team.
Ryan has already gained a better understanding of how to format photos to make things look a certain way, and to balance artistic freedom with the needs and limitations of the school. Out of all the photos he took, his favorite picture is “the one with the Lovett flag because I think it shows our school’s joined effort in support of Lovett and what we represent, and I think having the students wave the flag is a cool symbol of that,” Ryan said.
When speaking with Ade about Ryan’s progress this semester, he said, “Ryan has done a really great job this semester in being patient and being able to adapt.” As this is Ryan’s first experience, Ade really wanted to take the time to teach him and help him to have an “eye for photography” and learn about different layouts as well as graphic design elements. The biggest thing for the future that will help Ryan in the future is that “he knows how to make a marketing plan, and take photos and promote an event,” Ade explained.
Throughout his internship, Ryan has enjoyed getting to know Ade better. His sister, Allie, had a close relationship with him through sports, and Ryan began his relationship with Ade through golf. With this new context of working together, Ryan has come to understand that what Ade does is “a lot of communication…seeing him go to every sporting event and watching how much time it takes to do all the edits and the creativity that goes into it all.”
Ryan has enjoyed his internship so much that he thinks it would be “a lot of fun to make it an actual class… there are already a lot of students involved in taking photos at games and doing that kind of stuff,” Ryan explained. He thinks if more students knew about an opportunity like this, they would take advantage of it.
Luckily for students, Ade is on board with taking on more students. ‘I’m hoping to get 1-2 kids a semester,” Ade said.
Ade’s recruits will undoubtedly gain a lot from the experience. As Ryan said, “I have made a lot of memories.”
