Elle Gedman: How Harbinger helped find her passion and is shaping her next four years

Growing up, I knew I was going to be an interior designer. I pictured moving into a chic post- college apartment in New York City, making a name for myself so I can eventually move back to Kansas City to raise my family.

But visiting the University of Oklahoma school of architecture my junior year made me question my whole future plan.

I knew where I wanted to go to college, but seeing students creating floor plans and picking out fabrics made me realize interior design wasn’t the glamorous Pinterest lifestyle I’d been imagining. In a panic, I started trying lots of new career-related activities like DECA and FAID classes, even Harbinger.

And so I became a page designer and social media staffer. Even as an upperclassman, I clung to my photographer friends without branching out. I designed basic pages and felt unsatisfied with my participation on staff.

Throughout the stress about my future plans, one thing remained constant — my love for sports. Every Sunday growing up was spent watching football and my idea of “the most wonderful time of the year” is March Madness. By the end of my junior year, Tate’s last “five-minute” lesson sparked my interest.

He showed us clips of a comedic broadcast of two boys from 2017 talking about the boys soccer team — and that’s when it all clicked in my head. I could combine my life-long love for sports and newfound passion for journalism with my energetic personality to create something The Harbinger has never seen before.

So I created EASTPN — a sports pregame show — to update the student body on weekly sports news. I‘ve never looked back. Throughout filming, producing, editing and creating 26 episodes this year I’ve met amazing guest speakers and learned how to speak confidently in front of a camera.

Sure I often got teased by guys in my grade. I heard that a lot of “women don’t belong in sports” or that “I didn’t know what I was talking about” or that I should “shut up and be the pretty female that sits in the middle” but I learned not to listen because Harbinger has taught me that you should never let other people get in the way of what you love.

In the fall I’m attending OU to study broadcast journalism with the goal of becoming a sports anchor. I still plan to “make a name for myself,” just maybe not in the west borough of New York as a prestigious interior designer.

Harbinger, thank you for giving me the opportunity to find what I love. I hope you all tune in to watch me on the big screen one day.