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Student Perspectives Interning in Sport Management &
Media: From time to time we will be posting entries here written by Sport Management or Sport Media majors who have completed their internships to give you some idea of what you can expect when you become a student in the department. This first entry, is written by Journey Gunderson, Sport Media, class of 2004.
GETTING STARTED: Most Sport Media majors do their required 6-credit internship sometime over the course of their junior and senior years at Ithaca, whether it’s over the summer or during a semester. By this time in my college education I was still unsure about an exact career path, but had come to know what I liked and disliked. Coming in, I knew I had a strong interest in sports. For my 1-credit fieldwork requirement, I had worked at Cornell University helping with athletic events and facilities management. I learned a lot from this experience, including that I probably did not want to pursue a future as a Sports Information Director or work in athletic event management. Nonetheless, a great experience. Through both the required and elective courses I took at Ithaca, I realized I had interests in gender studies, law, and communications. I told my advisor, Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, exactly that. She made some suggestions, including the Women’s Sports Foundation, and I did some research. WHAT IS THE WSF? Founded in 1974 by tennis legend Billie Jean King, the Women's Sports Foundation is a charitable educational organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to participation and leadership opportunities for all girls and women in sports and fitness. This was right up my alley. WHAT I DID: I looked into the internship program and read the descriptions of the positions available. I completed the application process, including developing a personal resume for the first time. While I was waiting to hear back about my application, Dr. Staurowsky arranged for me to meet with Dr. Becky Lane, Online Media Producer for the WSF. Dr. Lane actually lives in Ithaca, and is in charge of the Foundation’s extensive website. Dr. Lane reviewed my application and we designed a sort of externship position where I could work in Ithaca with Dr. Lane, occasionally traveling to the Foundation on Long Island. I was now a member of the WSF web team. My weekly responsibilities included compiling and posting online news and television listings for women’s sports. Each week I surfed the web for the latest news in the women’s sports world. I would send in the top headlines to another intern, who included them in the Foundation’s weekly newsletter. I then wrote a summary of each story and posted them on the Women’s Sports in the News page of the website. For each story I also created links to full-text articles on the web where more information could be found. For the Women’s Sports on TV page, I researched television listings of several sources, including TVGuide, ESPN, CollegeSportsTV, etc. and assembled a weekly schedule of all women’s sports programming on television. This included everything from an LPGA Tour event to the showing of A League of Their Own. Other responsibilities included editing/writing-up articles for our homepage, finding and formatting images/photographs for areas of the site, researching and interviewing athletes, and working at the 2003 Annual Salute to Women in Sports awards dinner in New York City. I was able to travel to the city a few times for internal department meetings and meetings with outside companies such as Mediopolis, the firm that hosts and maintains our website capabilities. This was a good taste of real-world professionalism and business conduct for me. THE BIG EVENT: The Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner was by far the highlight of my experience. Don’t miss these pictures!!! Each October, the Women’s Sports Foundation gathers the most decorated female athletes together with celebrities from film and television to celebrate the achievements of women in sports and highlight the best individual and team performances of the year. As our biggest fundraiser and highest-profile opportunity as an organization, months and months of preparation and planning go into this event, which finally all comes together at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan. Leading up to the New York Awards Dinner (NYAD), I was assigned two athlete interviews and one round-table discussion to conduct during the day of the dinner. After much research and preparation, I had the privilege of interviewing Kate Skarratt, one of the top professional female surfers in the world. This Australian also played a role in the movie Blue Crush, as both an actor and stuntperson. I also got the chance to interview 17-year-old sprinter phenom Allyson Felix. She has been called "the next Marion Jones" and the "Lebron James of track and field", and will likely be seen in this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens. The last of my interviews was a very special opportunity for me, as I was designated to lead a sort of discussion between the only three women ever to race the Indianapolis 500, together in the same room for the first time. This included Janet Guthrie, Lynn St. James, and Sarah Fisher. Other than these interviews and miscellaneous other tasks, other responsibilities I was happy to take on were the gathering of brief video clips of athletes’ inspirational tidbits and also kneeling right down in front of the stage to film the actual acceptance speeches of award recipients. I found myself asking the likes of Oksana Baiul and Lisa Leslie for moments of their time to say something to the camera, and kneeling next to tables where Julie Foudy and Nancy Lopez were seated while I filmed Billie Jean King, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Bill Cosby, and so many more just 15 feet in front of me. Talk about the experience of a lifetime. WHAT NOW? This internship experience could not have been better for me. Not only has it left me with great memories, but I was able to develop contacts with several important persons career-wise, create a relationship with a fantastic organization that would possibly hire me in the future, and gain the knowledge and experience one cannot get in a classroom. I have learned that I would like to continue doing work for an organization like the WSF, perhaps by pursuing a law degree first and working for a cause I believe in. This internship went as well as it did largely because of the preparation I got as an Sport Media major/law minor at Ithaca College. The education I received provided me with at least a basic background in the areas of writing, marketing, computers/web design, sport sciences including gender issues and social aspects, public relations, broadcast production, legal issues including Title IX, and more. So many of the skills I developed in my courses were a significant help to me throughout. This internship placement proved to be a perfect fit, and I encourage every student to try to find an internship experience that suits their interests as well as this did mine. Pages Contact (jwolohan@ithaca.edu) Last Updated 2/20/04 |
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