Alumni Spotlight: Emil Rodriguez-Powell ’00

Name:  Emil Rodriguez-Powell

Section / Years Marched:  Colorguard, 2000  and  Colorguard Staff  2001,  2003, 2004 (just at the beginning of the summer)

Where are you originally from?

Born in Puerto Rico, my family settled in the Souderton, Pennsylvania area where I graduated from High School and my love for color guard started.

Where do you live now? 

I currently live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

What are you up to these days?   

After spending 15 years in the social work/child welfare field, I finally made the leap in 2017 to leave my full-time job to make my side hustle my main hustle: running a boutique photography studio, Slice of Lime Photography. As if that wasn’t keeping me busy enough, earlier this year, I moved to my dream studio space and launched a second photography studio brand, Source Creative House, with two of my photographer friends.

My first photography business, my baby, is called Slice of Lime Photography. I specialize in high end fashion-forward senior portraits. I offer a specialized portrait experience to high school seniors which includes a style consultation, hair and makeup, and an in-person reveal of their images where they can design products and experience seeing their images for the first time.

Slice of Lime has been published numerous times in Senior Photography industry magazines and has been awarded the Senior Style Guide Hot 100 Senior Photographer award in both 2017 and 2018. Slice of Lime has also been featured in the Fashion Issue of Senior Styled Guide in both 2018 and 2019. In addition, Slice of Lime has been on the cover of Senior Style Guide Magazine and the cover of The Twelfth Year Top 50 Photographers Magazine.

I just returned from Nashville a few weeks ago, where I had the honor of being one of 12 speakers at Seniorologie Conference 12, an educational conference for senior photographers. I had the honor of presenting about Connecting with Your Clients and also styling and leading a styled photoshoot to teach other photographers my way of photographing and styling my clients.

My second photography brand, Source Creative House, specializes in creating compelling imagery for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We photograph a lot of headshots, do branding imagery for companies who don’t want just run of the mill stock photography, and our studio is also rented out to other photographers and creatives for photoshoots and small events.

I haven’t completely left my social work roots behind as continue to volunteer for the Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption Network where I create fun/engaging photographs for children in search of their forever families. I also partner up with the Hershey High School, Walk for Clean water, where I partner with the Key Club leadership to do a photoshoot to create promotional photos to advertise their annual event and I then provide event coverage the day of their walk.

When I’m not behind a camera, I’m cuddling with my three doggies and chilling with my hubby, Jason Powell. (Side note: Jason and I met at the Surf Picnic in the summer of 2000. Jason is an alumnus of The Crossmen, taught at both the Crossmen and the Colts, and Surf percussion peeps may know him from his time teaching at Surf as caption head in 2002.)

What brought you to Surf initially?

I was a member of Blackwatch Winterguard from 1999-2003. We had many Surf alumni in Blackwatch during the time I was marching. I became good friends with Jennifer Lopiano that year and she was Surf alumni, who encouraged me to march. In addition, our color guard staff at BlackWatch was also going to be teaching at Surf, so many of us made the decision during the 2000 indoor season to go march Surf together.

What is your favorite memory from when you marched?

There are almost too many memories to list out. It was a very special year & despite continuing to grow old, I still have so many vivid memories from that summer.

On the field, one of my favorite memories was performing the ballad at Franklin Field. There was something absolutely magical about the ballad that day. So magically, that you felt every note and every movement in the core of your soul. I speak so strongly about it even to this day because I vividly remember walking off the field and turning to Chrissy Leathers and both of us exclaiming how perfect and magical the ballad felt. Another highlight of that summer was learning at championships that we had won high color guard in our division.

The color guard had so much fun together that summer and I remember so many silly things from that summer: from making up stupid songs as we walked to and from the field in Stroudsburg, to running around in the rain with Chrissy Fricke and getting in trouble by Shorty, to my sister, Emma putting on Britney Spears performances, to yelling “HEY CARPET” instead of Carmen during the drum break, to being made to run laps by Marcel for just being total goofs on the field.

That summer will forever have a special place in my heart and I will forever share a special bond with my friends from that summer. I am forever grateful for that.

How did your experience at Surf influence you in your life/work/etc.?  

My experiences in color guard throughout the years have greatly influenced who I am.  Having discipline, working towards a common goal, learning to problem solve when things don’t go as planned (weather, fences, etc) are essential life skills that you can’t help but soak up when you’re with such a large group of people for so. many. hours. at a time, often on a bus.

As a creative, seeing a show come to life from just an idea to a whole production with 29302839090 moving parts, is something that has greatly influenced me. Working with others, even when you don’t always agree with how to get things done, in a creative setting is something that I definitely use often in my current career path.

Being a part of an organization with a rich history is also something that still resonates with me. Loyalty and honor to something “bigger than yourself” is something that I value and that continues to be a part of who I am.

What advice can you offer current and prospective members about how to make the most of their experience at Surf? 

Soak up every minute. You blink and before you know it you are 40 and you aged out what seems like 100 years ago. The skills drilled into you to work hard on and off the field, to connect with others from backgrounds much different than yours, to learn to respect the activity and those who came before you, all those skills will go with you no matter where life leads you after your marching days are over. Soak those things in and learn as much as you can from everyone you come into contact with.