First Weekend with SJI

When I first got accepted into the Sports Journalism Institute, I don't think I really understood what I was getting into. I knew it was a great program designed to help enhance the gender and racial diversity in rooms. I also knew SJI was a program designed to help a selected group of talented students from around the country improve as journalists. Most importantly, I didn't know how much I would be affected by the week I would spend in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Only a weekend into a program, I already feel like I have learned more at Poytner than I learned during my whole college career. I haven't really been challenged a lot at my university. I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. But here, I am challenged every minute of the day to become a better journalist. I'm more focused more than ever. I thought I knew sports before, but now I feel I have to step up my game in so many ways to truly be competitive in the journalism field. I must READ all the time. I must know what's going on at ALL times. The sports check tests keeps me on my toes. I understand these sport checks mean more than just proving I can get a good score this week. I MUST read and study every day after I end the program.

More than anything, I am grateful to have such a great group of journalists to look up to here. ESPNNEWYORK.COM Executive Editor Leon Carter, Senior Assistant Sports Editor of the Boston Globe Greg Lee, and freelance reporter, the man with four jobs, David Squires and St. Petersburg Times sports writer Ed Encina have been such great teachers and mentors to the class and I am just thankful to be a part of this program. This is truly a blessing. I look forward to blogging about the best advice I received from Carter, Lee and Squires during the week!