Name: Leslie Anne Graham, although I generally just go by Leslie.
Major: Marketing and Entrepreneurship with minors in Photography and Anthropology
Classification: Junior/Senior
Campus Involvement: RHA, Delta Sigma Pi, Mercer Friends of Tattnall Square Park, Business Scholar, Tift Scholar, Football Equipment Manager/Videographer, Bearforcer
Hobbies: I am restless if I don’t have something to do, so I choose to try new crafts at every opportunity. Currently, I’m trying out metal embossing. Before that was printmaking. I’ve always had a really huge love of reading and I can’t remember a time that I didn’t have a camera in my hand.
Role Model: It’s really hard to single out one person that has impacted me, but I’d probably choose Dr. Crutchfield. She has so much life experience in marketing, and she really tries to help every student that she teaches. Her passion for serving others is an inspiration and having her as a professor has definitely made an impact on my life.
Future Plans: I don’t really know. I’ve tried to dabble in a little of everything and so it’s made choosing much more difficult than I expected. Luckily, I’ll have my best friend by my side through those decisions. I want to move out west—the Pacific Northwest has always seemed a little like a faerie-tale to me, and I’m really interested in job opportunities in that direction. Ideally, I’d be working for a business that is engaged with the community, focusing on marketing or photography, anything where I get the opportunity to be creative and engage with people. Not so ideally, I’m pretty willing to take any job. I want to be able to provide for myself, in hopefully a meaningful fashion.
Favorite MU Professor: Dr. Bourdon, for sure. I would have never imagined when I signed up for Anthropology 101 as a freshman that I’d be an anthropology minor. Honestly, if someone had suggested it to me, I would have laughed at them. However, having taken several classes with her, I’m always amazed how much I can learn about humanity. She’s honestly a little intimidating, she’s had so much life experience and I have so much respect for her. But on a different level, I can relate to her more so than my other professors: she plays cards against humanity and eats healthy food. She has a similar family backstory. She’s cool.
What is your favorite Mercer Tradition? Call me old fashioned, but I love the Tower tour. I was so jealous when one of my fellow O-Groupers told me they got to go up during a preview-day. Now, I love it even more knowing I can go up whenever I want. I think that seeing Macon, and Mercer, in all her beauty from above makes me really appreciate this school, and the town that we live in. One of the freshmen involved in RHA took a picture of one of the (many) places I had signed the tower when I went up my freshman year and showed it to me a couple of weeks ago. It’s just a really cool tradition.
Study Break Tips: Personally, I find diagramming things really helpful. If I can make connections between ideas I’m much more likely to remember the material. Also, make sure to stay healthy. Soda and energy drinks and gallons of coffee seem like a good idea at the time, but if you feel bad during your finals, you’re less likely to perform well. Remember to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water, and try to munch on some healthier snacks too like eggs, or nuts.
Favorite quote: “The world always seems brighter when you’ve made something that wasn’t there before.” (Neil Gaiman)