DAYTON — Michelle Hwang benched her love of sports when she enrolled at UD to focus on a traditional career path, but a job with the UD athletics student broadcasting crew is scoring Hwang opportunities to make her love of sports into a career.
Hwang, a master’s student in business administration who got her undergraduate degree from UD in May, is one of more than 20 students capturing footage for ESPN+ basketball, soccer, baseball and volleyball games. They learn to communicate and problem-solve under pressure while working as a cohesive team to air live, high-quality programming. She joined the crew four years ago to stay connected to the sports world while pursuing a corporate career.
“Gaining background knowledge of what goes into a game is something I hold valuable,” Hwang said. “Even though I ‘just’ broadcast and help produce shows, when I’m in that space, I also see what’s happening behind the scenes, like how marketing is getting everybody lined up for a giveaway or how the statistician is getting their lineups, giving me a glimpse into the larger sports industry.”
She was preparing for a marketing internship with a local business in 2020, but the pandemic threw a curveball and her internship was canceled.
When she saw an opening for a baseball marketing internship with the Casper Horseheads Baseball Club, a collegiate summer league team in Wyoming, her broadcasting experience positioned her as knowledgeable about the industry and someone who can think quickly on her feet.
“My experience in that internship reaffirmed my passion and desire to work in sports,” Hwang said. “Sports isn’t what my family wanted me to do; it’s hard to get into without the right connections and I’m a woman of color, so why would I go into that industry? But after my internship, there’s no way I can’t not do it.”
Since then, Hwang completed another baseball marketing internship, started her master’s degree and has had great success on the UD broadcasting crew. Hwang’s footage landed on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 after capturing a winning goal during an A-10 women’s soccer tournament game this November. Her footage of the first tip of the First Four of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship — March Madness — made its rounds on Twitter with 1.5 million views.
“This experience has given me sports exposure and helped me network, including working a professional soccer game with Columbus Crew 2, the Crew’s reserve team,” Hwang said. “It also has given me the opportunity to showcase my skills and market myself in a way that I might not have been able to through only educational experience.”
Students interested in joining the UD athletics broadcasting crew email broadcasting athletics video services director Scott Helton at shelton6@udayton.edu.
Credit: Source link
