Being at a smaller school, those opportunities are more readily available. You know a lot more people and it’s easier to get better experience and more hands-on practice.
Before they called Fenway Park home, Red Sox stars Carlton Fisk, Jason Varitek and Mo Vaughn played baseball on Cape Cod. Sam Santos, ’23, aims to follow a similar trajectory – although you will find her gripping a pencil instead of a bat.
Sam, a communication studies and history major and social studies minor at Bridgewater State University, is interning as a beat writer for the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Wareham Gatemen. She writes game previews and recaps, as well as feature stories.
“I’m getting my reps in,” she said, drawing a parallel to the workouts athletes complete to be ready for game time. “I do a little bit of everything.”
Sam is one of nine interns who handle Gatemen communications. She attends every game to interview players, run the team’s social media sites (including launching the team’s TikTok channel), and sometimes even operate the scoreboard.
The experience builds on skills she developed in class and writing for BSU’s student newspaper, the Comment.
“Being at a smaller school, those opportunities are more readily available,” said Sam, who is from Dartmouth and will be the Comment’s sports editor in the fall. “You know a lot more people and it’s easier to get better experience and more hands-on practice.”
A longtime Boston sports fan, Sam came to BSU to become a teacher. She switched majors, opting to follow her passions for sports and writing.
In part-time faculty member Brian Lepine’s Introduction to Journalism course, Sam wrote short- and long-form pieces and practiced interviewing. For one assignment, she spoke with employees at the New England Sports Network, where she would love to work writing about the Red Sox.
“Sam is really talented and hard working,” Lepine said. “I think she’ll have a great future in sports journalism or public relations.”
Outside the classroom, her experience as a resident assistant and orientation leader is instrumental to her internship success.
“Those two positions force you to talk to so many people you wouldn’t normally talk to,” she said. “They put you in situations where you have to be outgoing and make people feel welcome and at home at BSU.”
During her internship, Sam even wrote about (and soaked up advice from) former Gatemen interns who now work at ESPN and the Boston Herald.
“I’m learning the importance of making those connections and being as nice as you possibly can with everyone you meet,” she said.
Do you have a BSU story you'd like to share? Email stories@bridgew.edu.