Written By Carolina Franco, Class of 2017

On December 27, 2015, I had the incredible opportunity to travel with Leigh Michaud, (a former UConn alumna and a current operations coordinator for ESPN) to the Orange Bowl in Miami, FL. Although it was a brief five-day trip, I still couldn’t believe that I was going to attend my first ever-collegiate football game as an operations assistant with ESPN. Thankfully, the weather was spectacular which made for an amazing experience.
I first learned about this opportunity from Dr. Joseph Cooper, who assisted me in identifying why this opportunity would be beneficial for me and how it aligned with my past experiences in sport – more specifically with credentialing. Leigh was a phenomenal colleague to shadow throughout this experience because of her extensive knowledge about credentialing and working as an operations coordinator for college football. She took time out of her busy schedule to prepare me on how to properly document key information for game day EPSN personnel.

I learned the importance and purpose of arriving to the game site days in advance and how to assist with the credentialing process.  I worked closely with Leigh to categorize ESPN’s personnel, based on their credential status (Game, Gameday, Operations VIP) and carefully confirmed what kind of access they were granted (on field, locker rooms, press box, etc.).

Once game day arrived, our organization paid off as we delivered the credentials to all the ESPN staff. While the teams were warming up, I was asked to help out in the radio booth for both Clemson and Oklahoma. My responsibility in the booth was to make sure that radio announcers’ voices synchronized properly to the camera directly on the other side of the field. During the game, Leigh gave me a tour on the field and explained the different roles of the camera crew and what other members of the ESPN team do. In conclusion, I truly enjoyed every moment and had the greatest, most positive learning experience working at the Orange Bowl with ESPN and Leigh.