Athletics Communications Practicum/Internship Description

Practicum and internship students will have the opportunity to be involved in every aspect of the operations of Athletics Communications. These can include working at home events, assistance with social media content, preparing materials, statistics and photographs for use on the JMUSports.com website, recording and research of statistics, and preparing information for use by members of the news media. For students with writing proficiency, assignments can include preparing game program copy, game/event stories, game/event previews, materials used in recruiting prospective student athletes, etc. Candidates should be dependable and pay close attention to detail. Those who wish to be involved in working home events should be prepared to work nights and weekends.

Application

Contacts:
Kevin Warner - warnerka@jmu.edu - overall athletics projects
Chris Brooks - brookscp@jmu.edu - football, tennis
Christian Howe - howecd@jmu.edu - baseball, men's soccer, swim & dive
John Bilello - bilellja@jmu.edu - field hockey, women's basketball, cross country, track and field
Brett Beecham - beechabw@jmu.edu - volleyball, men's basketball, golf
Meghan Kalenborn - kalenbmm@jmu.edu - football, softball
Owen Smetek - smetekoc@jmu.edu - women's soccer, lacrosse

Practicum applicants can contact a specific person if desired or general practicum inquiries can be directed to Christian Howe.

Availability
Positions are available for fall, spring or summer and are generally open to 5-10 students per fall or spring and 2-5 per summer

Hours
Generally 6-8 hours per week, preferably in two blocks of three or more hours each. Hours can also include games depending on student's designated responsibilities and interests.

Sports
Sports generally align with the supervisor assigned to each practicum student. However, there is flexibility to work for multiple supervisors or to work other sporting events outside of those that are the responsibility of the immediate supervisor.

Possible Assignments: The following is a sampling of tasks assigned to practicum students.

Assisting with in-game or promotional social media content for sport programs.
Management of photographs; including identifying subjects of photos, rating quality of photos, preparing photos for use on JMUSports.com.
Updating athlete biographies on JMUSports.com.
Editing "Getting to Know You" Q&A with incoming athletes for JMUSports.com.
Updating schedule/results and rosters on JMUSports.com
Assisting with in-game statistics at home games
Working on setup/teardown at home games
Assisting with compilation of statistics throughout the year
Only for students who exhibit expertise in writing, writing post-athletic event stories or weekly notes, primarily for JMUSports.com. Examples of this type of writing are available on JMUSports.com (news section).
Only for students who exhibit expertise in writing, writing feature stories for publication or JMUSports.com
Compiling game notes
Updating/composing sports record books and prospectuses
Career statistical updating for all sports utilizing StatCrew (when appropriate)

Requirements

Interest in sports and more specifically in sport communication - best fit for Athletic Communications practicum positions are sport communication minors and/or majors in sport management, communication or SMAD
Ability to work evenings and weekends if responsibilities include game coverage
Detail-oriented
Flexible, ability to adapt to changing responsibilities
Multitasking

Calendar