By: Ryana Garner

The blog posts located in the sports journal tab, were not just assignments. It was step towards expanding my knowledge of Stategic communications within sport. Through this class, I have learned so much from creating blog posts and listening to Professor O’Hallarn’s lectures. This class gave me the tools to thrive once I become a sports professional in the near future. I can now look at sport media through a different lens and understand the “why” behind it.

Throughout this course, we were challenged to create our own sport media. While it was enjoyable, it was also challenging. Being able to create your own narrative may seem easy, but it takes skill and great sports communication knowledge to successfully execute. Like for our game report assignment, it was important to pay attention to detail, report the game in a non-biased way and captivate readers in a journalistic way. Another example is our sports penpal assignment. We had to take time to communicate and put someone else’s journey into our own words. It was a great networking experience and I got to know more about my penpal’s unique journey.

My favorite assignment was being able to create a docu-series for my sports penpal, Wendell Mitchem. Being able to have complete creative direction for this assignment made it fun. It also confirmed that I would love to work in the communications side of sports, because being able to create positive narratives for athletes and sports professionals is something I truly enjoy.

While working in this field in the future, I want to be able to create safe spaces for athletes and sports professionals to express themselves as well as their feelings. It is my dream for everyone to feel seen and heard. Also, as an African American woman I would be able to inspire other young black girls to pursue their dream career. There aren’t many girls who look like me within the field, so it would be my duty to break barriers and show them that it is possible!

To wrap up my reflection, I would just like to say it was truly a great experience taking this class. An important skill that I learned was how to take constructive criticism. I can be very insecure about my writing and having someone else have an opinion on it was a nightmare. However, I learned it does not have to be scary and is actually helpful. I was able to receive it and make improvements, which is what is all about! Also, writing was a huge part of my life for a long time. I developed writer’s block and only really wrote for school purposes. But this class has inspired me to fall back in love with it.

I will be sure to take the skills and lessons I have learned into my future career in sports communications.