Hi! My name is Amanda Avila, and I am the sports content director of my college paper, Mustang News, at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where I’ve anchored and produced live broadcasts for major sport events including the biggest rivalry in college soccer.

I currently manage a 30-person team of sports reporters, videographers, social media members and three editors, focusing on big-picture storytelling across platforms. I founded our first-ever sports social media team to expand our audience on new accounts and helped Mustang News Sports reach record-breaking analytics on our website.

I started my career as a sports videographer for my school’s student media. I covered nearly every Division I sport at Cal Poly while learning camera operation, Adobe editing and broadcast writing. I found my passion while anchoring several hourlong pregame broadcasts, where I also worked behind the scenes producing and learning the technical side of live coverage.

I extended myself into every area of the industry. I practiced copywriting by picking up breaking and feature stories that made it into print. I joined our college radio station as a newscast anchor to develop my on-air voice. I even enrolled in photography classes outside my major so I could capture the perfect shot for my own stories.

I will be a senior in the fall majoring in journalism with double minors in entrepreneurship and political science. In a year, I hope to find a position that will help me reach my dream of becoming a sports broadcaster for a professional network.

My path to journalism was not traditional. I entered Cal Poly as a political science major with plans for law school, but I craved a deeper connection with people. At the end of my freshman year, I switched to journalism, applied to student media and discovered my love for storytelling.

The first sports team meeting I walked into, I was one of only four women in a room of twenty men, all led by male editors. A year later, I hired the largest sports staff in Mustang News history and prioritized bringing in more women and voices from different backgrounds.

This summer, I will intern at the sports desk of The Oklahoman, where I am excited to continue growing as a reporter and, if all goes well, help cover the NBA Finals.

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Hi everyone! My name is Vivian Yao, and I am a former sports editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian, the independent student media organization of the University of Pennsylvania. 

During my tenure as sports editor, I led a department of over 40 writers and primarily covered Penn’s football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. I also managed live updates for the Penn Relays — the nation's oldest track and field meet — where I interviewed athletes ranging from high schoolers all the way to Olympians.

My most impactful work was an investigative piece regarding the Penn women’s track and field team. After a three-month reporting process involving 16 sources and legal counsel, we published a story alleging mistreatment and sexual harassment by the coaching staff. This reporting was honored with several accolades, including an honorable mention for the CMA Pinnacle Award, the Drake Group Education Fund Student Journalism Prize for Investigative Reporting in Intercollegiate Athletics, and first place at the Student Keystone Media Awards.

I recently graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. While a degree in Bioengineering might seem unrelated to sports journalism, it is deeply connected to my love of sports. Growing up as the child of immigrants, soccer was my first community. Like many athletes, I faced a plethora of injuries, and it was that fascination with recovery and human performance that motivated me to study bioengineering.

Now that I’ve graduated, I’m returning home to cover the teams that I’ve followed since I was a kid: the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles. This summer, I’ll be interning at the Baltimore Banner through the Sports Journalism Institute. I cannot wait to grow and learn as an aspiring sports journalist and am super excited for all that this summer will bring! 

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I’m Ryan Myers. For two years, I worked as a sports reporter for On3, covering Arizona State athletics. I diligently covered the university's football and men’s basketball teams, which opened opportunities for me to cover the 2024 Big 12 Championship and the College Football Playoff. 

While working for On3, I also served as the managing editor for the award-winning Walter Cronkite Sports Network. WCSN is the only outlet that covered every varsity program at ASU, which allowed me to edit stoires and help mentor other college reporters. I also anchored for our Emmy-award-winning student-run sportscast, Cronkite Sports Live.

In April, I received a 2025 Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists while reporting for Cronkite News. The award was granted for my work reporting on gambling laws for casinos on Native American lands in Arizona.

 In May of 2026, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University with a minor in Digital Audiences. 

Upon graduation from Arizona State, my goal is to become a sports reporter, looking for a position that will allow me to reach my eventual goal of covering basketball at the national level. I aspire to report on the biggest games in the sport and tell stories that leave a lasting impression on fans. 

My Sports Journalism Institute internship this summer is with the Sports desk at the Dallas Morning News, where one of my goals is to generate clips from the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

My love for sports journalism started when I was in middle school. Inspired by listening to Mike Breen and Mark Jones, I began doing play-by-play for my high school football team. 

When it was time for me to apply for colleges, I knew committing my degree to sports media would require a strong track. Making it a no brainer on coming to ASU after getting in, I moved over 2,000 miles from home in Northern Virginia.  Now I'm still pushing toward the goal that sent me across the country in the first place. 

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I'm Alauna Marable and I am currently the sports editor for my school’s newspaper, the Spartan Echo. I am a junior at Norfolk State University, majoring in Mass Communications and I recently finished my internship with ESPN’s Andscape as a Rhoden Fellow.

I’m from Detroit, Michigan and always had the goal of going back home after graduation. Around that time, Detroit’s WNBA will be back active, and I am aiming to work for them. My dream already came true of working for ESPN, but I loved my experience there, and it is still my long term goal to make my way back under the Walt Disney Company. 

My first journalism recognition was in high school for a Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Sports News Story Honorable Mention. Since then, I received the Best Sports Story Award for the past two years from Norfolk State’s Department of Mass Communications/Journalism for my work with the Spartan Echo Newspaper.

After completing the SJI bootcamp, I’ll be staying home and interning with the Detroit News this summer. Detroit Lions Football training camps will be taking place and I plan to cover them. There is a recent HBCU graduate from Morgan State that signed with Lions as an undrafted free agent, Erick Hunter, and I’m hoping to write a story on him. 

Watching a Pistons game with my grandad and uncle was how I crossed paths with sports journalism. I knew I didn’t want to be an athlete forever, I was too accident prone for that kind of thing, and watching the journalists work their magic seemed fun and like it was something I could do. 

I joined my first newspaper class in my senior years of high school. The first article I wrote was on our school’s first ever female football player. I fell in love with the process of crafting the story, from interviewing the player to writing up my first draft. The cherry on top was when it was all said and done and the article was published with my name right along with it. 

This all led me to Norfolk State’s Spartan Echo Newspaper, where I became their top sports writer and took over the sports editor position my sophomore year, and I’ve been holding the sports department down ever since. 

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Hello, my name is Latif Love, and I am the Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Bradley Scout, where I lead a team of 20 writers as we work to publish impactful coverage on sports, pop culture, and current events each week.

In this very room, I spent countless hours becoming the person I am today.

Between these four walls, I grew from contributor to assistant sports editor, to sports editor, and eventually to leading the entire newspaper. In this seat, I wrote stories that opened doors I once only dreamed of, including award-winning work, such as my first-place finish at the 2026 Illinois College Press Association for my breaking news coverage of alleged wrongdoing within the Bradley Athletics department. 

I spent countless late nights in this newsroom building the foundation of the reporter I aspire to be one day. That work led me far beyond this campus. For three years, I covered Bradley men’s basketball as the beat reporter, learning what it means to chase stories, meet deadlines, and build relationships with the people that I cover. 

That preparation carried me to two Missouri Valley Conference tournaments, where I experienced firsthand the pressure and pace of covering championships. It led to internships with Mid-Major Basketball and Draft Digest under the Sports Illustrated umbrella.

Right here, I wrote the essay that helped me earn admission to SJI, an experience that played a major role in landing my upcoming internship with the Kansas City Star, where I’ll cover the Royals, Chiefs, and the 2026 World Cup.

This fall, I’ll graduate from Bradley University with a degree in Sports Communication and Journalism. And wherever this career takes me next, my goal remains the same as it has been since I was a boy in middle school: to one day cover the NBA at the national level.

If this newsroom taught me anything, it taught me that it’s more than just a workplace. It’s also a home. 

That is a lesson I’ll carry forever, and wherever the next one is, I’ll make that home, too.

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Hello! My name is Penelope Jennings. I am a former high school sports reporter for The Washington Post and intern at CNN Sports. This spring, I graduated from American University with bachelors degrees in journalism and history. 

While at American, I wrote and edited for our campus newspaper, The Eagle, for four years, including one year as sports managing editor. 

A story I co-wrote for The Eagle about the community impact of the demolition of American’s outdoor basketball and tennis courts was named a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Finalist for Sports Writing in 2023.

My goal right now is to cover women’s sports, and/or hockey (on the ice or field), and my dream job is to be an investigative sports reporter.

This summer I will be interning at The Seattle Times, where I’m hoping to cover the World Cup, the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Reign FC.

I’ve experienced just about every role in sports from athlete, to fan, to coach, to team staff, to beat writer and even referee.

I’ve played field hockey for 11 years from youth rec to high school to college club, and my career came full circle in 2024 when I got the opportunity to cover D.C.-area high school field hockey for The Washington Post. It was a dream come true to interview athletes and see them excited to have their teams highlighted just like my teammates and I were when we were mentioned on NJ.com.

I am a proud Jersey girl but I am super excited to explore the Pacific Northwest this summer!

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I’m Gabriella, the person who’s always thinking about how to turn a moment into a story. I work in sports media, vertical video, and fan‑first storytelling, and I love building content that actually connects with its audience. I am a jack of all trades: reporting skills, video production and online content creation. 

My investigative reporting with The Daily Cardinal, closed-door harassment trainings and pricey lobster dinners at my university have been honored with awards from the Milwaukee Press Club and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association – two years in a row – for my investigative reporting on closed-door harassment trainings and pricey lobster dinners at my university. All the while running the Cardinal’s newspaper's social media presence as Social Media Manager and raising our impressions by over 200% in just one year. 

I recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in Journalism and Gender and Women’s Studies and a double minor in Sports Communications and Public Policy. 

Throughout my college experience, I had bylines appear in newspapers like The Capital Times, Madison365, and The Raleigh News and Observer, where I spent two summers as an Audience Growth Intern, where I not only focused on social media and video production but also got to write stories on my own. 

This past fall, I served as the editor-in-chief of CURB magazine, a yearly publication put out by our journalism school. 24 classmates and I each wrote feature articles, raised over ten thousand dollars and fully published a physical 64-page magazine under my leadership. My article for the magazine was recently honored with a Society of Professional Journalists award in food reporting. 

My hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is often referred to as a small market, and even though it’s technically true, I resent the term. Our love for our teams is not small and rivals any major city team out there. Although I root for the Nuggets and not the Bucks, I love my city and how much we love our teams. 

Which is why I am so excited to be working in Milwaukee this summer as a Sports Intern for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I love to learn, so I’m excited to not only bring my diverse experiences to my internship and SJI but also to learn from my fellow classmates and my supervisors. 

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I’m Samantha Guillotte, an ex-college student-athlete who’s looking to make a living telling the stories behind the sport. From sideline reporting and sports editing to shooting the Sugar Bowl and managing team content, my path through sports media has been anything but traditional.

I recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Loyola University New Orleans with a degree in Mass Communications focused in Journalism and a minor in Marketing. During my time at Loyola, I balanced competing in both indoor and beach volleyball while building experience across reporting, photography, digital media, and content creation.

My journalism career began during my freshman year when I worked as a sideline reporter and camerawoman covering Loyola athletics while also serving as Assistant Sports Editor for The Maroon. By spring semester, I became Sports Editor, assigning stories and designing pages while competing in season myself.

As my athletic career evolved, so did my role in sports media. After joining Loyola’s indoor team sophomore year, an injury shifted me into positions as PR manager and content creator for the program. Around that time, my passion for sports photography took off, eventually leading to opportunities shooting under David Grunfeld for the Saints and covering major events including the Sugar Bowl and its surrounding media events.

Outside of sports, I continued developing my photography skills abroad in Rome while also expanding my experience in digital storytelling and broadcast packages. My reporting has ranged from the impact of a measles outbreak on athletics to arts and culture stories like opening night for The Great Gatsby in New Orleans.

This fall, I’ll continue my journalism career in Jacksonville, Florida, working with Gannett at the Florida Times-Union. My goal is to keep growing as a reporter, trust my instincts, and continue telling meaningful stories through writing, photography, and multimedia coverage.

From New Orleans, and soon Jacksonville, I’m Samantha Guillotte.

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 Hello everyone, my name is Matthew Gomez, andI’m the former associate managing editor for The Daily Texan,  at The University of Texas.

The Texan is where I started my student journalist career, and it has allowed me to do some pretty cool things. I first started covering local and state politics in Austin. Here I got to cover political conventions, rallies, protests, city council meetings, debates and the 2024 election cycle. 

Eventually, I was lucky enough to move into sports coverage, where I  covered Texas athletics. I had the privilege of covering Texas basketball, swim and dive, and got to participate in a collaborative reporting project covering NIL and the changing landscape of college athletics. I also traveled  to travel to Atlanta to cover SEC media days, where I made an appearance on the Paul Finebaum show.

With my time at the Texan, I was honored to be a part of the staff that received an award from the college media association in first place for multimedia package for my work on The Daily Texan's Silence on the South Mall, covering the protest and arrest of students in April 2024. eventually got to move up to lead and manage the paper with out 300+ student journalist. 

I’ll be a recent graduate from The University of Texas at Austin this summer. I am super excited for my SJI internship at The Houston Chronicle, where I hope to expand and develop my feature writing skills. 

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OI grew up in Houston, where we got the paper delivered every Sunday to our house, so getting to report and be a part of the same newsroom is a dream come true. I am grateful for the experience to report on teams I grew up watching. I hope to take the skills I learn from SJI and my time at The Houston Chronicle to find a job in the sports media world.

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I’m Reiven Douglas, sports communications assistant, sideline reporter, contributing writer and occasional play-by-play announcer at North Carolina A&T State University. 

Alongside my work in athletics, I also served as both a reporter and producer for the school’s student-led news organization, Aggie News, where I covered stories ranging from an athlete returning to the game after almost being sidelined with a heart condition, to revealing the history of some of our most valued traditions.

I was honored as an Outstanding Contributor for the 2025-26 school year for my work both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. 

I am a May 2026 Aggie graduate after completing my Master’s in Business Administration, two years after receiving my Bachelors in Journalism from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. 

I say all of this with extreme pride as storytelling is where my heart lies and I hope to find a position that helps build a strong foundation in reporting through covering live events, and conducting intentional interviews to develop a clear, confident on-air presence.

My goal is to use this foundation to become a  sideline reporter and interviewer for a major national platform. 

My Sports Journalism Institute internship this summer is with ESPN, where I hope to connect with the extremely talented team  of award-winning journalists, as well as current hosts like Amina Smith to learn more about the professional sports media world.

Before this, I also completed a summer internship with the Los Angeles Sparks as a Public Relations and Game Day Communications intern, where I generated a spreadsheet to keep track of players approaching milestones, supported media operations, assisted with credentialing and socials.

That experience strengthened my confidence in working in fast‑paced professional sports environments and sharpened my communication and storytelling skills. As a women’s basketball lover I also hope to cover the local WNBA team, the Connecticut Sun.

As a former division I women’s basketball athlete, I carry a deep love for sports and the lifelong lessons I’ve collected along the way. Where the world just see athletes, results, I remember the process and story that each individual carries with them.

My journey took me through the highs of winning a conference championship and the lows of sports-related depression. I embrace every part of it with a responsibility to help others share their story as well. I appreciate your time and attention, and hope to get to know you more as well.

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My name is Alyssa Cooper, and I’m a multimedia sports journalist who’s covered everything from HBCU athletics to future MLB Hall of Famers.

I’ve spent the last four years at Florida A&M University as a sports anchor for FAMU TV-20 News at Five and sports editor for The FAMUan, covering the championship seasons of baseball, tennis and football, while mentoring a team of staff writers.

My goal is to join a newsroom in a market with opportunities to cover baseball at the prep, collegiate and professional levels. My long-term goal is to become a senior college baseball writer and be an on-field reporter for the College World Series.

My sports reporting journey has led me to Atlanta and Orlando to cover HBCU football classics. It’s taken me 850 miles west to Fort Worth to cover the Texas Rangers, Dallas Wings and postseason college baseball for the Star-Telegram, and 475 miles northeast to Charlotte to contribute to features and live productions for ESPN’s ACC and SEC Network and College GameDay.

I graduated from FAMU in May with a Bachelor of Science in Broadcast Journalism, and I am so overjoyed to be a part of the Sports Journalism Institute.

I will be interning this summer in Minneapolis with the Minnesota Star Tribune.

I hope to gain more experience in feature and enterprise reporting while also gaining experience in prep sports and digital reporting.

My favorite sport is college baseball. There’s nothing in sports that compares to the magic of Omaha. Being a Tallahassee native, my favorite program is obviously Florida State. I hope to be there when the Noles finally win that elusive title.

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I'm Xavier Burton, sports anchor and reporter for Aggie News at North Carolina A&T State University, where I also serve as president of the N.C. A&T student chapter of the Associated Press Sports Editors. I contribute to the A&T Register as well, covering all things Aggie athletics.

Once I graduate, I'm looking for a position that will put me on a path toward covering the NBA for a major outlet. Long term, I want to be a senior NBA insider. I want to be people’s primary source when it comes to NBA news.

I'm a recipient of the Urban League Award of Academic Excellence, and I also completed four years of Air Force JROTC, finishing as a Cadet Technical Sergeant. What I learned in the program has shaped the discipline and accountability I carry into newsrooms and student organizations today.

I'll be a senior in the fall at N.C. A&T, majoring in multimedia journalism. My Sports Journalism Institute internship this summer is with the Knoxville News Sentinel, where I'll be covering an array of beats, including the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2026 induction on June 27. One of my personal goals for the summer is to grab an interview with Candace Parker at the ceremony.

I was admitted to N.C. A&T for computer engineering, but ultimately changed my major,  because journalism felt like a better fit. Growing up, I loved playing sports, and I realized if I wanted to stay connected to the game, I needed a different path. That decision has led me here.

I'm a lifelong basketball fan. I grew up a Warriors fan, and Stephen Curry is my favorite athlete. My passion for sports, combined with my love for storytelling, drives everything I do in this field.

I joined the N.C. A&T student chapter of APSE my freshman year and never looked back. After serving as vice president my sophomore year, I was elected president, and I'm excited to continue building the organization.

My favorite moment as a journalist came this spring, when I covered the Greensboro Swarm in the 2026 NBA G League Finals on their way to the franchise's first championship. The excitement I felt leading up to the game, and the feeling of being in the building when it was happening, was further confirmation that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

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I’m Xavier Board, sports business reporter with The Diamondback at the University of Maryland. I’ve previously served as a reporter and freelancer with Capital News Service, The Bowie Sun, Port City Daily and The Charlotte Observer. 

My goal is to start as a local beat reporter for a college or pro team, that eventually leads to national radio and tv analysis. 

I’ve earned my master’s degree this past May in journalism from UMD. After graduation I’ll embark on my sports journalism career at the Nashville Tennessean, covering the Titans offseason and other sports.

My passion for journalism comes from watching and reading sports coverage in my hometown of Jamaica, Queens, New York. I moved to Wilmington, NC at 18 to pursue an undergraduate degree in English and journalism. At UNCW, a “journalism” major wasn’t an option, so I focused on my writing skills through English courses and improving my reporting through internships.

I completed a basic reporting class my sophomore year of college, where I was encouraged by teachers to continue my path. I reported at Port City Daily my senior year, where I covered everything but sports, which was an experience that allowed me to round my craft in other beats. 

This allowed me to approach sports reporting in a different way, being able to mix a crime story with a sports angle, or a sports angle with a government story.

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I’m Kai Dizon, the Sports Photo editor and a former Assistant Sports editor at the Daily Bruin, where I have nearly 300 bylines.

Sports writing and photography are the two things I’m most passionate about, and they’re the two things I hope to do as a career. My values of accountability, truth, and change make sports journalism the place where I want to be.

I’ve been fortunate enough to win The Bruins’ Sports Reporter of the Year award the past two school years, in addition to being a co-winner of our Rookie of the Year award as a freshman.

I’ll return to UCLA as a fourth-year Ecology, behavior and evolution major. My Sports Journalism Institute internship this summer will be with the Southern California News Group, where I’m looking forward to expanding my idea of what sports is and why people care so much about it.

I’m happy to say my affinity for sports has grown with me. For the longest time, I didn’t care much about any single sport, but one day, when I was 10, I started watching my hometown Chicago Cubs and haven’t given up baseball since.

My freshman year at UCLA was my first experience with sports writing and sports journalism, being one of few to cover the 19-33 Bruin baseball team. This past school year, I photographed my first baseball game on UCLA’s opening day, and kept shooting till the Bruins’ season ended – one of several to witness the upset of the No. 1 overall seed – the day before I got to Phoenix for SJI.

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