Typically behind the camera, senior Business Administration major Jamari Russell steps into the spotlight
If you have spent more than a day or two at Lees-McRae, you may have seen senior Jamari Russell walking around campus with a camera in his hand, perhaps a long-lensed Canon or a handheld DJI video camera. Russell is a Business Administration major earning a specialization in Marketing, and he has had plenty of opportunities to flex his skills with these cameras through his work-study position in the Office of Marketing and Communications.
Over the past two years in this role, Russell has been a content creator for the office, often filming and editing short-form videos along with other social media content. He said that getting hands-on experience and a behind-the-scenes look at a real-world marketing office has given him valuable insight into what it will take to be successful in the field following graduation.
Russell transferred to Lees-McRae from Alamance Community College, where he initially enrolled with plans of studying political science and eventually pursuing law school. While there, however, he began to learn more about the marketing field and eventually switched his field of study before beginning his time as a Bobcat.
“Being able to interact with people, be in a business setting, be able to organize meetings, and be able to reach people interested me a lot more. I decided to continue to pursue that,” Russell said. “Another thing that really got me interested in marketing is the creativity aspect of it. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to create content for the school’s Instagram, and bounce ideas around about things going on on campus or things that might be trending online.”
Following graduation, Russell plans to foray into corporate marketing, where he hopes to learn the ropes before eventually opening his own firm doing marketing consulting and advertising. He said his work-study position with the Office of Marketing and Communications has given him lots of insight, but his professional experience does not stop there.
Prior to transferring to Lees-McRae, Russell worked in a similar role for Alamance Community College, and he has continued to work with professional clients, including local clubs and new businesses, in his hometown of Burlington, North Carolina.
“It has given me an avenue to apply [my knowledge] and actually learn from experience what it would look like going into a day-to-day job in a marketing career,” he said. “Being in those settings by myself, planning it out in my head, and making the best of it without having someone beside me telling me what to do really gave me an opportunity to grow past what I was doing in the classroom. The application of it helped me branch out my skills a lot more and be able to use the equipment, interact with people, and apply marketing knowledge to a real-world situation.”
While getting involved around campus may seem like a cliché to students in their first year, Russell said it can make a world of difference for one’s overall college experience. In addition to his work-study position, Russell is a track and field athlete, a resident assistant in Tate Hall, and a leader in the Fellowship of Christian Students organization, all opportunities that he said have given him strong connections he can draw from when creating content for the college’s social media accounts.
“The more you get yourself out there, speak to people, go to different events, and just see what’s going on and put yourself in the mix, that’s where the majority of opportunities come from. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have gotten my work-study. I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to do marketing outside of the college. I wouldn’t have been able to create the amount of content and have the amount of willing people that are able to participate in videos we do,” Russell said. “Challenge yourself as a person to be a little bit more outgoing. I know it’s difficult for a lot of people, especially first-years, but you reap the benefits of it. If you don’t try it’s very hard to see the fruit of that.”
