Ely currently lives in Katowice, Poland, with his wife, Emily and their almost 3-year-old daughter, Kit. He works for a nonprofit that started working on content for the Olympics by building videos in about 12 languages challenging athletes and fans to think about the concept of their identity.
“Ultimately, the Olympics are a competition with immense pressure of various kinds: national, personal, monetary, honor, responsibility, public perception, and more. These pressures inflate with failure or, even in victory, the reality that the Olympic journey has ended,” Ely said. “We realize that identity, in every culture, has become shaky ground as people have no enduring answer. We want to show compassion in these conversations about identity.”
This multi-language engagement project includes building digital advertisements, a website, and a virtual-reality platform.
“I thought working digitally with the Olympic project would be the full extent of my involvement, however, when the call came to participate in-person as a photographer and videographer, my family and my friends made it possible for me to catch late-night planes and trains to make it to Paris in time,” Ely said. “I am incredibly thankful that they sacrificed to enable this dream experience for me.”
Ely shared a bit of Appalachian hospitality with the world as their team provided free water, Wi-Fi and restrooms, to travelers and athletes in the Olympic Village.
“In our experience as foreigners in Europe over the last 2.5 years, we have learned how impactful it is to extend that same hospitality to those who feel out of place. Sometimes hospitality means providing a place of rest, and sometimes it means taking time for someone who needs a bit of compassion in life to combat the darkness,” Ely said.
Ely has always had the desire to live globally, already checking off Austria, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom off his travel list before he turns 30.
Ely graduated with his associate’s degree in nursing from St. Mary’s School of Nursing through the cooperative program with Marshall University in 2017. Ely went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Marshall. He then worked as a nurse at the Cabell Huntington Health Department and at Valley Health for about four years.
“Throughout my time at Marshall, we were privileged to meet and develop relationships with many students from all over the world. This meant that even in Huntington, West Virginia, we were able to learn and experience global cultures that we wouldn’t have had access to otherwise,” Ely said. “International students provide a wonderful opportunity for the people of Huntington to
develop a more global perspective and cultural understanding.”
The love of the Herd runs deep for the Ely family, Andrew proposed to his wife Emily, a College of Education and Professional Development graduate, on campus in 2015.
Andrew’s brother, mom, and dad all are Marshall University graduates as well.
As a proud member of the Herd, Ely’s story shows that no matter where you start, your foundation at Marshall can teach you the skills to truly go anywhere—even the Olympics.
