This first assignment for this sport professional penpal triology was to make the connection. At first, I had difficulty finding a professional contact; however, I work within ODU athletics and wasn’t familiar with the communications department, so I decided to walk in and ask around if there was anybody I could get in contact with that would agree to be my professional penpal. I was told to email Lauren Rivera-Galvez, an assistant director of communications and SID of Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse.

I reached out to Lauren via email (shown below), and she told me that she would be excited to work with me over the course of this semester.

Lauren graduated from ODU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Strategic Communication. She is a sports information director (SID) at Old Dominion Athletics, and this is her first year as an SID. She started as a communications intern in the fall of 2024, where she mainly worked on daily tasks and small things during games. She then became a communications assistant in the spring of 2025 and was one of the few SIDs for Women’s Tennis, Men’s Tennis, and Women’s Lacrosse. After she graduated in the spring of 2025, she was offered a part-time position with ODU, where she now acts as the SID for Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse, and supervises both Men’s and Women’s Tennis.

Above is the email I sent to Lauren to ask about participating in this project.

Overall, I felt as though the whole process of reaching out and communicating with Lauren was easy and professional. Since we both work within ODU Athletics, we already share a common interest in sports, and I believe that this will help my relationship with Lauren improve rapidly as the semester continues.

I hope that by working with Lauren, I learn more about the communications side of collegiate athletics and better my career within sports media. Specifically, I look forward to learning how Lauren reaches out to other schools and communicates across several sports while dealing with the pressures of daily tasks.