Lauren Halvorson is an AQHA World Champion and NCEA All-American who will graduate from Oklahoma State University in May with a degree in Sports Media and plans to pursue her Masters Degree in Mass Communication after that. Lauren recently returned from Orlando, Florida where she had the opportunity of a lifetime to intern with the Florida Citrus Bowl. Lauren credits her years in the saddle with opening the doors to this outstanding experience.
I am so thankful for my experiences and involvement with AQHA and NCEA, it is amazing all the people and great opportunities it has brought about in my life. I just returned from an incredible internship with Florida Citrus Sports in Orlando working in the media relations department for the Russell Athletic Bowl (Virginia Tech defeated Rutgers, December 28) and the Capital One Bowl (Georgia defeated Nebraska, January 1) games. I heard about this great opportunity from Jared Gallagher (pictured below), who did sports information for our equestrian team at Oklahoma State. Gallagher graduated from OSU last year and has been working for Florida Citrus Sports for about six months.
My title for the week was “Media Relations Intern.” Media relations is essentially working with the media members who are present for the event and connecting them with the game, coaches and athletes. Before each game, I helped set up the press box which is not an easy task. You must be sure that each media member has a name card, media guides, ballots, and flip cards (cards that list the numbers, height weight and position for each player on both teams). I also helped with media registration where the media members would check in and receive their credentials, itinerary, and media guides for every team and conference stat sheets.
Game day work was fun, it was nice to watch the game from the press box and even go out on the field if I so pleased. It was cool knowing that the ESPN broadcast was going on right next to me. One of my idols, Samantha (Steele) Ponder was working the sidelines of the Capital One Bowl. I really wish I had the chance to meet her, but I am sure everyone else in the city of Orlando was wishing the same thing. Few people knew that she had just married Minnesota Vikings Quarterback, Christian Ponder, on December 17.
The most fun part about media relations, aside from having a press box seat at the games, is connecting the coaches and athletes to the fans and media. I had the opportunity to meet some incredible people. Before the Capital One Bowl pregame press conference, I led the head coach, starting quarterback, athletic director and sports information director for the University of Georgia from the lobby of the hotel to the hospitality room where I was able to meet them. Coach Richt was a very nice man, you can tell he really cares about his fans. I was most excited to meet their quarterback, Aaron Murray. He is a very nice (and extremely handsome) young man who went on to win the MVP award for the Capital One Bowl game. It was also very cool to chat with the athletic and sports information directors because they had great things to say about the NCEA programs.
Situations like that make my experiences with AQHA and NCEA invaluable. I really enjoyed being able to have conversations with people about their school’s equestrian program and to be able to see how enthusiastic they were. They could not say enough good things about their girls and they were eager to see more schools get equestrian programs. If it were not for my experience in the horse industry, I would not have been able to accomplish nearly as many things as I have. I cannot be thankful enough for what it has done for me.
