Paige Bird: This Summer I Landed My Dream Internship
8/13/2018 1:20:00 PM | General, Women's Golf
Purdue Fort Wayne women's golfer Paige Bird landed a dream internship this summer. The communication major from Carbondale, Illinois spent 12 weeks working at Golf Channel's headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Paige took the time to answer questions about her internship experience.
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This summer you spent 12 weeks at an internship with the Golf Channel, how did you go about landing this internship?
Last fall I applied to an internship/scholarship program through the Association of Women in Sports Media (AWSM). Each year the organization selects a limited number of female students pursuing a career in the sports media industry, and places them throughout the country at different internships to which they are best suited. AWSM's internship was my top choice and, as you can imagine, I was excited when I made it to the final stages of the application process. I have always loved sports and all forms of sports media, but golf is incredibly close to my heart. I have always wanted to work for a network like Golf Channel, which I expressed in my application. My final stage involved doing a phone call interview with Mark Summer, who worked at ESPN for 23 years, and is currently the senior news director for Golf Central. A few short weeks after the interview, I received a phone call from AWSM and was offered the broadcast production internship as well as the Betty Brennan Scholarship. It was exciting to know I would be spending my summer in Orlando working for the Golf Channel.
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Tell us a little bit about what you did this summer at your internship.
I traveled down to Orlando the week after classes ended this spring and officially started my internship May 14th. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. The previous summer, the intern who had the same internship through AWSM worked for Morning Drive. This required her to be at work every morning around 3 a.m., so I had been mentally preparing myself in case I was placed into the same job. Luckily, as I am much more of a night owl than a morning person, I was put on the Golf Central show. Golf Central is one of the news shows for Golf Channel that normally airs at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and has multiple airings Thursday-Sunday depending on the tournament being played. That being said, some days we had to be in at 2 p.m., and others we had to be in at 4 a.m. Occasionally, we had six hour days and sometimes we had twelve hour days. No matter what show you work, when live television is involved there really are no normal hours. I worked a minimum 40 hours a week for 12 weeks at Golf Channel and gained an incredible amount of experience and knowledge throughout my time.
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What does a day in your life at Golf Central look like?
This summer I worked as a Production Associate (PA). The main part of my job consisted of finding and creating elements the producers needed for the different segments in the show. I was treated like any other employee and was given a lot of responsibility, for which I am incredibly grateful. I was not running around and getting people coffee. I was being put to work and doing the same type of jobs as other PAs. In a typical hour-long show, I was assigned different tasks at the beginning of the day, and it was my job to find and produce all of these things, bring them to an editor, and create a completed piece of work to air on the show. At the beginning, I started small, as everyone does, but in just a few weeks, I gained the trust of the producers and was given assignments that I was very proud of. I cut highlights, created clips of b-roll, cut sound from players, put together picture bumps, and edited teases. My favorite projects were the more creative elements like making a tease for the John Deere Classic with fun effects and music, or cutting the American Century Championship celebrity highlight, which was not a typical golf tournament. Being able to do more creative things was fun because I got to show off more of what I am interested in and my capabilities.
What was your favorite thing that you did during your internship?
The biggest highlight of my internship was getting to create my own personal segment. About a month into my internship, my supervisor told me that interns in the past had done an on-camera segment in studio to have for their demo reel and that they could use for applying to jobs in the future. He told me that if I wanted to, rather than just doing a segment with what we had made in previous shows, I could actually produce an entire segment for myself as well as be the host. By doing this, I could not only showcase my ability on-camera, but create everything in this segment and see it through from start to finish. So, that's exactly what I did.
What did you do for your segment, and what went into producing it?
My segment was centered around the U.S. Open which happened in June, but, when we recorded it in late July, we acted as if it had just happened. For my segment, I produced a 50-second tease that I voiced, a 2-minute highlight, multiple graphics including a leaderboard, and an all-time consecutive winners list, sound from the winner, and all of my scripts for the almost 7-minute segment with one of our analysts, Tripp Isenhour. We also recorded a separate version of my segment with just myself on camera for me to have as well. I have had zero on-camera experience, as that is not something I have ever been taught in my classes, but overall I think it turned out pretty great and I am very proud of the end result.
(You can watch Paige's segment below)
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What is the one thing you took away from this experience?
As a golfer, I thought I knew a lot about the sport going in to this internship, but playing and covering golf are two very different things. This summer I learned so much on a technical side of working for a big television network, but I also learned a lot more about the sport and have gained a deeper appreciation for it and for the history of golf. Golf Channel's main objective across all departments is to grow the game of golf. As someone who already loved the sport, it has grown my knowledge of the game.
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How will this internship help you get a job in your field after graduation?
This summer was a tremendous stepping stone in my life moving forward and going in to my senior year. Not only did I gain ample amounts of experience to help me in my future career endeavors, but I learned a lot about myself as well. I moved across the country to my first big city where I knew absolutely no one to pursue my dream internship. I was more excited than nervous, but I also did not know what to expect. Little did I know all the opportunities that would be given to me throughout 12 short weeks. I learned a lot, made friends that will last a lifetime, worked for and met people that I could never dream of, worked for a company/network, had a lot of fun, and worked with a team of people that brought me in as one of their own. I am so incredibly grateful that AWSM and Golf Channel gave me this opportunity, and I cannot wait to see how it will help me in my future endeavors.
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This summer you spent 12 weeks at an internship with the Golf Channel, how did you go about landing this internship?
Last fall I applied to an internship/scholarship program through the Association of Women in Sports Media (AWSM). Each year the organization selects a limited number of female students pursuing a career in the sports media industry, and places them throughout the country at different internships to which they are best suited. AWSM's internship was my top choice and, as you can imagine, I was excited when I made it to the final stages of the application process. I have always loved sports and all forms of sports media, but golf is incredibly close to my heart. I have always wanted to work for a network like Golf Channel, which I expressed in my application. My final stage involved doing a phone call interview with Mark Summer, who worked at ESPN for 23 years, and is currently the senior news director for Golf Central. A few short weeks after the interview, I received a phone call from AWSM and was offered the broadcast production internship as well as the Betty Brennan Scholarship. It was exciting to know I would be spending my summer in Orlando working for the Golf Channel.
Â
Tell us a little bit about what you did this summer at your internship.
I traveled down to Orlando the week after classes ended this spring and officially started my internship May 14th. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. The previous summer, the intern who had the same internship through AWSM worked for Morning Drive. This required her to be at work every morning around 3 a.m., so I had been mentally preparing myself in case I was placed into the same job. Luckily, as I am much more of a night owl than a morning person, I was put on the Golf Central show. Golf Central is one of the news shows for Golf Channel that normally airs at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and has multiple airings Thursday-Sunday depending on the tournament being played. That being said, some days we had to be in at 2 p.m., and others we had to be in at 4 a.m. Occasionally, we had six hour days and sometimes we had twelve hour days. No matter what show you work, when live television is involved there really are no normal hours. I worked a minimum 40 hours a week for 12 weeks at Golf Channel and gained an incredible amount of experience and knowledge throughout my time.
Â
What does a day in your life at Golf Central look like?
This summer I worked as a Production Associate (PA). The main part of my job consisted of finding and creating elements the producers needed for the different segments in the show. I was treated like any other employee and was given a lot of responsibility, for which I am incredibly grateful. I was not running around and getting people coffee. I was being put to work and doing the same type of jobs as other PAs. In a typical hour-long show, I was assigned different tasks at the beginning of the day, and it was my job to find and produce all of these things, bring them to an editor, and create a completed piece of work to air on the show. At the beginning, I started small, as everyone does, but in just a few weeks, I gained the trust of the producers and was given assignments that I was very proud of. I cut highlights, created clips of b-roll, cut sound from players, put together picture bumps, and edited teases. My favorite projects were the more creative elements like making a tease for the John Deere Classic with fun effects and music, or cutting the American Century Championship celebrity highlight, which was not a typical golf tournament. Being able to do more creative things was fun because I got to show off more of what I am interested in and my capabilities.
What was your favorite thing that you did during your internship?
The biggest highlight of my internship was getting to create my own personal segment. About a month into my internship, my supervisor told me that interns in the past had done an on-camera segment in studio to have for their demo reel and that they could use for applying to jobs in the future. He told me that if I wanted to, rather than just doing a segment with what we had made in previous shows, I could actually produce an entire segment for myself as well as be the host. By doing this, I could not only showcase my ability on-camera, but create everything in this segment and see it through from start to finish. So, that's exactly what I did.
What did you do for your segment, and what went into producing it?
My segment was centered around the U.S. Open which happened in June, but, when we recorded it in late July, we acted as if it had just happened. For my segment, I produced a 50-second tease that I voiced, a 2-minute highlight, multiple graphics including a leaderboard, and an all-time consecutive winners list, sound from the winner, and all of my scripts for the almost 7-minute segment with one of our analysts, Tripp Isenhour. We also recorded a separate version of my segment with just myself on camera for me to have as well. I have had zero on-camera experience, as that is not something I have ever been taught in my classes, but overall I think it turned out pretty great and I am very proud of the end result.
(You can watch Paige's segment below)
Â
What is the one thing you took away from this experience?
As a golfer, I thought I knew a lot about the sport going in to this internship, but playing and covering golf are two very different things. This summer I learned so much on a technical side of working for a big television network, but I also learned a lot more about the sport and have gained a deeper appreciation for it and for the history of golf. Golf Channel's main objective across all departments is to grow the game of golf. As someone who already loved the sport, it has grown my knowledge of the game.
Â
How will this internship help you get a job in your field after graduation?
This summer was a tremendous stepping stone in my life moving forward and going in to my senior year. Not only did I gain ample amounts of experience to help me in my future career endeavors, but I learned a lot about myself as well. I moved across the country to my first big city where I knew absolutely no one to pursue my dream internship. I was more excited than nervous, but I also did not know what to expect. Little did I know all the opportunities that would be given to me throughout 12 short weeks. I learned a lot, made friends that will last a lifetime, worked for and met people that I could never dream of, worked for a company/network, had a lot of fun, and worked with a team of people that brought me in as one of their own. I am so incredibly grateful that AWSM and Golf Channel gave me this opportunity, and I cannot wait to see how it will help me in my future endeavors.
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~ Feel the Rumble ~
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