Staff Spotlight: Alexis Elmurr, Fall 2014 Internship

The saying is good things come to those who wait and luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. Being an English major with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition, minoring in French, attaining a TEFL certificate as well as being a part of the inaugural Georgia State University sand volleyball team is more than just a good thing. Obviously, I am more than happy here, but arriving at this point took a lot of work, luck, and good timing.

Funny enough, I had never even heard of GSU until near the end of my senior year of high school, when a coach told me about the sand volleyball program beginning here. I had decided not to pursue indoor volleyball and already applied to a few schools, but I decided to take a chance and contact the sand coach. I had played indoor volleyball since seventh grade, but only dabbled in sand for about two years, so I knew it was quite a long shot.

Since I was waiting to hear back from GSU, I graduated high school having no clue where I would be going to college. It wasn’t until mid-July that I came to first visit the school. While I was here, I got offered to sign on to the inaugural sand volleyball team and began my journey to finding my niche.

Before, I had always planned on going to law school and becoming a lawyer (since the third grade, to be exact). However, the English department and my team changed that. My team knew I was a grammar and English dork, so everyone would always send me their academic papers to look over and edit. Long story short, I fell in love with the editing process and began to take classes that involved more writing, grammar, and editing. The English department and professors were all so wonderful that I ended up shifting away from the idea of law school and towards the career of becoming an editor.

I consider myself extremely lucky—The team is performing amazingly well (last year, we went 15-4 and were ranked 8^th in the nation), and I am thoroughly enjoying my classes and carving my path toward my dream career.