This is a speech that I performed for my communications class, describing what "BSU At The Games" meant to me.
Toward the end of my freshman year of college, my journalism design professor, Ryan Sparrow, approached me and asked if I would be interested in going to the London 2012 Olympics Games to work as a graphics reporter with a team of student journalists.
After I made sure he wasn’t just kidding (because one of Ryan’s favorite things is to pull jokes on me), I think my answer was something like, “uhhh, YEAH!”
And, a year and a half later, that’s how I found myself in the middle of London at the Olympics, working with a group of students known as BSU At The Games.
BSU At the Games was a group of 40 student journalists from Ball State that traveled to London to cover the Olympic games. We were there for three weeks, working as journalists for really prestigious media groups, like The Chicago Tribune, USA Today and The Huffington Post.
As a member of the graphics team, I had full-page color graphics published in the Chicago Tribune and the Tribune companies. We worked directly with the graphics producer for the Tribune, Alex Bordens, who actually is a Ball State grad. He said he was so impressed by the quality and timeliness of the work we all turned in, which I think really says something about the Ball State Journalism program.
While we didn’t all have press passes, we covered the Games in different ways. In the months before the Games, we developed relationships with Olympic athletes and met up with them in London. We interviewed people from all over the world that came together for this one, big, amazing event. We did stories on pin collectors, videos on journalists, graphics on medals. We covered the Games as thoroughly as we possibly could and we did it with the professionalism on real journalists, not just students.
Our project was another immersive learning class put on by Ball State. It did everything that an immersive learning class is supposed to do: give students real world experience by taking them outside the classroom and putting them into real-life situations.
And BSU At The Games did that. It gave us one of the most incredible real-life experiences that has ever been offered through Ball State. It gave us an exciting topic to talk about during job interviews, setting us apart from the rest of the candidates. It gave us the opportunity to put amazing clips from places like The Tribune and USA Today in our professional portfolios. And, it gave us contacts at those big-name media companies that we can stay in touch with after we graduate and start looking for jobs.
BSU At the Games was all of that. But, it was also so much more.
BSU At The Games was the experience of working on a graphic for more than 14 straight hours in a hot flat and being absolutely miserable, but crying of happiness when I saw my byline in the Chicago Tribune.
It was the experience of being so busy and so excited about your life that you forget to eat food for more than a day.
It was yelling “I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!” at the top of your lungs in the Tower of London and strangers, from all different countries, cheering you on.
It was singing Biggie Smalls with the graphics producer of the Chicago Tribune when our graphics get too hard and crying because you’re so happy and frustrated and exhausted and wired and thankful all at the same time.
It was watching the Opening Ceremonies in Victoria Park and singing “Hey Jude” with thousands upon thousands of people, feeling a ridiculous amount of pride for your country.
It’s was not showering for two days and wearing the same clothes and staying up 25 hours straight and realizing that yeah, I’m at the Olympics and yeah, I’m a real journalist.