Above and beyond Panthers senior always focused, striving for more

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH SPORTS EDITOR

When Ella Pogue awakens each morning, it doesn’t take long to get her motor running.

Quite simply, it never stops.

Under one condition, though.

“As long as my alarm doesn’t wake me up,” said Pogue. “I like to wake up before then.”

Pogue is what one would call a morning person – but the Liberty Hill senior is also an afternoon person, an evening person –really, an any-time-of-the-day person.

“I’m bubbly and energetic,” she said. “Life is too short to have negative feelings, so I always try to find the good.”

According to Pogue, her father Justin taught her from an early age to be an engaging personality.

“My dad really influenced me to have people skills,” said Pogue. “He told me I wasn’t going to be just another one of those kids that’s over in the corner with their phone or tablet.”

It’s an effervescence that will certainly serve Pogue well in her chosen career path of marketing, although listening to her tell the story, it’s one she never would’ve pursued if not for another profound influence on her young life.

“I was actually in the agriculture path and was planning on being a veterinary tech,” she said. “But, then I had (Liberty Hill marketing teacher Mikyela) Mrs. Tedder for a class when I was a sophomore and I liked her so much, I asked how I could have more classes with her and she recommended I take all her marketing classes.”

Once in the marketing fold under the guidance of Tedder, Pogue said she found her true calling.

“It was Mrs. Tedder that really helped me find my desire and passion,” she said. “She also showed me where and how to channel that passion and desire.”

Pogue said perhaps the most alluring aspect of marketing is the challenge of finding solutions to problems clients face in getting the message out about their businesses or products to varying audiences.

“You need to have a general idea of the target market you’re trying to reach,” she said. “As a result, I really fell in love with the freedom of creativity that provides.”

Pogue is planning on attending Texas A&M University to study telecommunications – which Pogue described as like “if digital marketing and advertising had a baby” – with the ultimate goal to get into the renown Mays Business School in order to better hone her marketing skills.

In addition to the academic atmosphere College Station provides, Pogue said the environment also lines up with her personal beliefs.

“Along with the country atmosphere, it’s a place that’s Christian and conservative, which goes right along with the morals I hold close,” she said. “God has always been a huge factor in my life and I feel going to a place like that with like-minded people will help me grow as a person even more.”

Pogue said she has even considered getting into politics some day.

“I just think there’s so much corruption in government,” she said. “Maybe I could go in and try to clean it up. So many politicians don’t keep their word and follow through on what they say to get elected.”

But, Pogue is not just all about classrooms and academia, as she played several sports in her younger years and continued playing softball up until her sophomore year of high school – and has a six-inch scar on her left elbow to prove it.

“I tore my triceps while lifting weights,” said Pogue. “I needed surgery and was going to try to come back, but the doctors told me it could happen again and I realized it wasn’t worth having lifetime issues just to play a sport in high school.”

Pogue is also heavily involved in DECA and Liberty Hill’s Incubator marketing program and said the required amount of focus and intensity to excel sometimes projects an unwarranted image when it comes to her approachability.

“I think people are surprised to find out I’m not as intimidating as I might seem,” she said. “I’m very confident, which might come across to some people as arrogance. But, I just have a big drive to get things done. Sometimes people will say to me ‘Wow, you’re not really as mean as I thought you were,’ which I think is funny.”