Ahmad Kebe turns a passion for sports into journalistic excellence with Adobe Creative Cloud

Students, faculty, and alumni at Florida A&M University (FAMU) are all proud to call themselves Rattlers. FAMU’s athletic teams compete in more than a dozen sports, and Rattlers fans keep up with the latest news, scores, and analysis in many ways, including The Famuan student paper, radio programming, or television broadcasts.

Many readers and listeners will recognize the journalistic touch of fourth year FAMU student Ahmad Kebe. Kebe has always been a go-getter with equal passions for sports and entrepreneurship.

“I was originally attracted to the idea of going into business and making a good salary straight out of college,” says Kebe. “But at FAMU, I got a chance to really think about my passions, my wants, and my needs. When I got introduced to the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, everything started to make sense. I wanted a career in sports journalism.”

Sports journalism today involves more than just writing articles. Journalists often need to be able to do it all: edit video clips, record podcasts, and promote their news on social media. FAMU is an Adobe Creative Campus, and Kebe has taken advantage of access to the creative apps to learn essential digital media skills.

“Broadcast journalism is a lot more than just writing,” says Kebe. “We’re doing research and interviews, then doing all the work to present it in different formats. Being an Adobe Creative Campus is great because we can use Adobe Creative Cloud on our own devices and get good experience working with professional apps.”

From athlete to journalist

The broadcast journalism program at FAMU believes in teaching through doing. Kebe has become a regular figure in FAMU Athletics, from performing PA announcements during football and volleyball games, delivering sideline reporting for football games, and supporting the FAMU men’s basketball team as a manager.

“I grew up doing sports: football, track, and cross country,” says Kebe. “It’s always been a part of my DNA. As a broadcast journalist, I love being able to showcase sports from the perspective of someone who has played. I also love taking the opportunity to highlight things like track, which don’t get nearly as much coverage compared to football.”

As a staff writer for The Famuan, Kebe has authored multiple articles covering individual games or athletic news at FAMU. For some articles, Kebe also serves as a photojournalist, posting photos taken during the game.

“Adobe Photoshop is something that I use a lot for things like creating graphics for social. It’s easy to use and it didn’t take me long to get used to creating and editing my own images,” says Kebe.

Kebe is also one of the voices of The Playmakers, a sports radio show on FAMU’s radio station, WANM FM 90.5, and the corresponding podcast, Halftime with The Playmakers. The Playmakers discuss events across both collegiate and professional sports while engaging with listeners through social media.

“Adobe Audition is my number one go-to app for recording the podcast,” says Kebe. “I try to get a podcast out every week. I can edit audio quickly with the app so I can get episodes published on time.”

As part of Kebe’s TV News class, he has spent time working for the FAMU TV-20 television station. He has experience both in front of the camera and behind it: operating cameras, creating B-roll footage, and recording previews ahead of Rattlers football games. The Adobe Creative Cloud video apps allow Kebe to quickly edit clips together and add narration to create segments ready for TV.

“When I first got to FAMU, all of the creative apps were new to me, but they weren’t hard to learn,” says Kebe. “The apps are intuitive and there’s lots of resources online to help you learn how to get better at communicating your ideas.”

Preparing for the national sports stage

Kebe plans to continue his education with a master’s in sports management or sports communications, with a goal of one day getting a job with a major sports broadcaster.

“FAMU is all about giving us a lot of hands-on experience so that when we get into the real world, we already have the skills that will set us apart from others,” says Kebe. “I’m getting experience behind the camera and on the field, but with Adobe Creative Cloud, I’m also getting experience learning how to get my work done using professional apps. That’s something that will mean the world to me after I graduate.”

See more of Ahmad Kebe’s work with Halftime with The Playmakers and FAMU TV-20.

For more information on being a Creative Campus, please visit here.