Journalism junior student Faith Flickinger swung for the stars as a beat reporter for the Falmouth Commodores, a summer college baseball team in the Cape Cod League.
Before games, Flickinger would talk with players during batting practice, prepare for the game by communicating with the broadcasters and sometimes even record a pre-game segment with the broadcast team. Once it was game time, she developed the recap, conducted post-game interviews, uploaded multimedia elements and then published the recaps.
“I worked closely with the other media interns and learned a lot about how to cover all content areas within an organization and how to ensure it all connects together,” Flickinger said.
Flickinger wrote two player features on top of her usual everyday work, the first one being particularly special to her.
“I was really nervous and excited all at once when working on it, and once it was published, I received a lot of positive feedback which meant a lot to me,” Flickinger said. “The player came up to me after it was published and told me he and his family loved it and thanked me. That just meant more to me than I can really explain.”
This experience strengthened her interviewing skills--and the nerves that come along with them.
“I feel a lot more confident in my abilities to interview and even do more long form interviews that are more personal and not just asking about a game's result,” Flickinger said.
In addition to the skills she gained, she also learned valuable aspects of working in sports.
“Stay true to yourself,” Flickinger said. “You will see the same people coming down that you will see working your way up in this industry, so it's important you treat everyone with respect, professionalism and kindness.”
This story originally appeared on the ComArtsSci website.