Alumni Spotlight: Alexandra Harris ’13

Where do you currently live?
Greenville, South Carolina

What kind of work do you do?
I work in corporate events! I began my career in non-profits, first as a fundraiser and then as a program manager. I transitioned into events about three years ago, when I joined an in-house events team at a technology distributor. I was recently offered a new opportunity at a Swiss manufacturer to lead the event strategy and execution for one of our four divisions in North America.

Any personal information you’d like to share?
I have two cats (Langston & Zora) plus a yard cat who adopted me (Gray Baby) and I recently married! My hobbies include playing Skat, a German trick-taking game, with a bunch of retired German men and I just started playing touch rugby as well. I love to read books with maps in the front and character names no one can agree on pronunciations for.

How did you first hear about the Academy?
My sister received a recruitment letter in the mail and ended up attending the Academy two years before I did! I got to go to a Lil Sibs weekend, attended Academy prom with her friends one year, and in general spent the first two years of high school just waiting to get to go to the Academy. I applied the second that registration opened for my class!

How did the Academy prepare you for your life now?
One of the reasons I’ve been successful in so many scenarios is a sense of “I’ll figure this out” that I think was cultivated in me at the Academy. When you leave home early and then add challenging coursework on top of that, you kind of have to develop an internal motivation to problem solve. There’s definitely a safety net, but ultimately I had to be able to find resources, make a plan, and execute it in order to achieve what I wanted to academically. Being around so many like-minded students insulated me from realizing how unique that was until I was in the workforce—it is not a common skill!

How do you stay involved and support the Academy?
My most low-stakes support is following all the Academy social media accounts so I can see what they’re up to! A few years ago they started really pushing for fundraising during One Ball State Day, so ever since then I mark my calendar and try to do what I can to assist the efforts on that day. My favorite campaign I started was alumni essentially “paying” for embarrassing high school photos of ourselves to be posted—that had us laughing all day AND raised some good money for our school! I also serve on the Academy Alumni Advisory Council.