ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT: Alex Doleac

Name?
Alex Doleac (Yes, Adam’s brother)

What year did you graduate?
2010 (12 year club what uppppp)

Give us the highlight reel! What has changed since you transitioned from PCS student to PCS Alum? 
I’m not sure the highlight reel is long enough to document all the changes the past decade has brought. But that won’t stop me from trying…

After graduating from PCS in 2010, I attended The University of Southern Mississippi, where I was a student athlete for the Men’s Tennis Team during my undergraduate and graduate coursework. After obtaining a Master’s Degree in Economic Development, I worked locally for The Area Development Partnership here in Hattiesburg as a Project Manager on their Economic Development Team. I later accepted a position in South Alabama with Baldwin County’s Economic Development Alliance, where I focused primarily on business recruitment, retention and expansion throughout the County, with an emphasis on high-wage job creation and capital investment for the region. During that same process, I also began dating my eventual wife, Hannah, and we got married in 2018. While Fairhope was our immediate first home as a married couple, we eventually moved back to our hometown of Hattiesburg in 2019 to put down roots and build our family here. I began working for my family at Doleac Electric Company, Inc., and Hannah began teaching at Purvis Middle School, where we both currently work today. Fast forward to today, and Hannah and I have become parents to our first child, Noah Alexander Doleac, and have been blessed beyond words by getting to learn and know him.

While so much has changed over the past 10 years, I still feel like the same 17-year old kid most days. A big-hearted, wide-eyed dreamer ready to find God around every corner life takes me around.

Feel free to check out my side-hustle and creative outlet, Alex Doleac Photography. I’d love to capture your family so that one day I can afford to send my son to PCS. Help a brother out.

What is your most impactful memory of your time at PCS?
When I was in 10th Grade, I got so frustrated with the limitations people put on young people to “do things,” particularly community changing things. I felt like the Lord was pushing me to do something, but I wasn’t sure what. With the support of some good friends around me, I approached the PCS administration about starting a student-run club called “The Hands and Feet Club,” a club completely focused on creatively meeting the needs of the people around us as followers of Christ. After some coordinating and planning, I was given permission to start the club under the supervision of a teacher sponsor. During my time working within the club, we were able to raise money for local ministries, host book drives and canned food drives, sponsor Compassion children on the other side of the world, host a fundraiser concert, and, above all else, see more of God in each other and the world around us. I will never forget PCS allowing me to move forward with something I felt called to at the time. While I’m sure it was a minimal request from the eyes of a principal, it helped teach a wide-eyed tenth grader that I could chart my own path and blaze my own trail. That lesson has carried forward throughout every season of my life since.

As you look back upon your education through the lens of a biblical worldview, how has that shaped every good endeavor that you have invested your time, talent, and treasure in since graduation?
There is no doubt that PCS provided me with a faith foundation that still is a cornerstone in my life today. Looking back over my 12 years at PCS, I am most thankful for the teachers and staff members that pushed me to think critically, not only in terms of information, but in terms of motive and intention. In terms of the process and the method. To me, PCS helped me understand that I am a son of God, and my life and all the actions with it, are a reflection of my Father. No matter if it was a math test on a Friday or winning state on the tennis court, it was my duty to not only do it well, but to do it right. Although I had massive failures in this arena (and continue to fail daily), my high school years helped me understand that God gifted each one of us with the privilege of carrying His Spirit within us. Our duty? To use our talents and gifts to the utmost of our ability in a way that honors God and helps show every person that they are, indeed, sons and daughters of our Father.

How would you describe the impact of your PCS education to a family considering our school for their child?
You can spend your time comparing prices, ACT test scores, scholarship money earned, and the like. But there’s never anything more valuable than experience to me. Presbyterian Christian School created an environment that not only was academically superior, but was built upon a foundation of faith. Teachers weren’t just teachers. Coaches weren’t just coaches. Lunch ladies weren’t just lunch ladies. Every person around me—every single one—was there to better me, both as a student and an individual, and they made sure I felt their support. The countless life talks after school, the blood, sweat and tears spent on athletic courts/fields, the early morning prayer breakfasts before the school day, the hallway therapy sessions in the hallway. That’s what PCS is—sure, it’s an incredibly impressive academic institution. But it’s also a place that builds up young people into men and women of God surrounded by a community of believers and mentors that care about their experience. I could not imagine spending my elementary and high school years anywhere else.

What do the relationships you made at PCS look like today?
While they might have started playing on playgrounds and during recess, my friendships with my fellow PCS grads look more like babies and house projects. Nevertheless, I am beyond blessed to have some of the same best friends from high school as my best friends today. Because of my parents enrolling me into PCS from Kindergarten to 12th grade, I have been able to walk through so many of life’s seasons with the steadiness of friends that know me well. That truth lives on today, as I have been able to experience different life experiences with friends I’ve known since kindergarten and preschool.

What is your one piece of advice for a current PCS student? 
Don’t settle for the options in front of you if they don’t meet your expectations. Go find what you want. Build what you want. Blaze your own trail or chart your own course. Whether it’s your career, your faith, your extracurricular activities—never fool yourself into thinking you are limited by your surroundings. Sometimes, we’re put into places to make the conscious decision to get ourselves out. No matter where you are in life, know this: there is always abundantly more. What are you doing to find it?