The team’s digital media manager, Alex Perez '17, was the first to join. He will return to campus next week to share his journey and insights into a career path that has awarded him two World Series championship rings.
Perez grew up in Whittier, and the combination of proximity and financial aid such as the John Greenleaf Whittier Scholarship made enrolling at Whittier College an easy decision. His sister, Adryanna Perez ’14, who majored in business with concentrations in marketing and finance, also influenced him. Once at Whittier, however, he followed a different path.
Perez joined the William Penn Society and served on the Program Board and Associated Students of Whittier College Senate. He’s grateful for the holistic, liberal arts education.
“I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do at that point,” Perez said. “But I was well-rounded, and I still use both my analytics background and the marketing background.”
Between his second and third years of college, he got a summer internship with the fan-run website Dodgers Nation, and soon, he was a full-time employee running the website and social media accounts and writing news articles.
“It was really a crash course,” Perez said. “And I was learning so much.”
Perez became editor-in-chief of Dodgers Nation after graduation, then in 2018 he received an internship with the New York Mets as a marketing and communications associate. It was his first time living outside of California. Perez soon jumped on an opening at the Dodgers, starting as a social media coordinator back in LA in 2019.
As a lifelong Dodgers fan, this career trajectory has been surreal.
“I went from collecting autographs as a kid to working with the biggest names in baseball, like Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, and building TikTok videos with them,” Perez said.
Perez credits the small classes and close relationships with professors at Whittier for giving him the soft social skills to succeed. One tip he has for undergraduates is to apply for the job you want — even if you don’t check off every box — and grow at work while teaching yourself new skills.
“If you don't have it exactly, you can learn it,” Perez said. “You can learn anything nowadays if you really want to. I was learning Photoshop every day when I was at the New York Mets.”
To hear more advice and anecdotes from Perez, attend his presentation at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6. The location is still to be determined.
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