Ithaca College was well–represented this past summer during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics as Bombers both past and present worked with NBC Sports during its coverage of the summer games. 

Every year, representatives from NBC come to the college to meet with students who are considering working for NBC one day. This connection paid dividends for senior journalism major Kristina Dillon, who spoke to Judy Cloyd, the vice president of Human Resources from NBC, when she was on campus. Dillon said that making this connection helped put her above other applicants. 

“I name–dropped a few people I had already been in contact with,” Dillon said. “I definitely think that helps kind of make a memorable position in their minds … which I think kind of put my foot in the door a little bit more.”

Dillon ended up playing the role of a runner, a traditional intern position who gets the producers, directors and other employees the essential equipment they need to complete their tasks. This includes printing copies of schedules or making coffee runs to help everybody get through the long, 12–hour shifts.

While the shifts were long, Dillon said the experience was one hundred percent worth it because she was able to watch some of the most well-versed people in the media industry do their jobs at the highest level on a daily basis.

“I would say my biggest takeaway was the work ethic and the passion that these people displayed,” Dillon said. “I saw multiple high, high up people in the company get emotional just talking about how important the Olympics were to them [and] how important the company was to them.”

Getting experience as an intern and making connections has been a successful formula for Ithaca College students for over a decade now. 

Diane Gayeski, former dean of the Roy. H Park School of Communications from 2010–20, said the early days of the college’s relationship with NBC preceded her time as dean. What made the students at the college so appealing to NBC was the hands-on experiences the college provided. 

“They used to do in–person interviews, so leading up to that, they would be actually coming to visit campus,” Gayeski said. “So, they would work with us to arrange those visits and try to publicize that to our students.”

Keenan Slusher ’10 was one of the many students to take advantage of the relationship during Gayeski’s time as dean. 

Before graduating with a television and radio degree and a minor in journalism, Slusher interned with NBC during his senior year at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. He said that the internship was his most valuable experience as a student and that it set him on a path that led to his current job as a full-time editorial supervisor with NBC. He has now covered eight different Olympics. 

Slusher said that when applying to the college, he immediately saw the vast opportunities that Ithaca College provided.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Wait, I can choose a college that I want to go to and I can potentially work for NBC at the Olympics,’” Slusher said. 

Slusher originally chose the college because he had aspirations of becoming a play-by-play broadcaster. He called play-by-play for football and basketball all four years on campus; however, he said that after his internship during the Vancouver games, NBC offered him another opportunity to work the 2012 London Summer Olympics and the rest was history. 

“I never thought that I’d end up on the digital side of things,” Slusher said. “But sometimes in life, things change and you gotta pivot with those changes and adapt on the fly. It was more about the opportunity and less about me saying, ‘This is 100% what I want to do.’”

Gayeski said one thing that set the college apart from other institutions is that they allowed students to work the Winter Olympics while still being enrolled full–time for the semester. 

“It’s been a great relationship…and I felt like especially our ability to enable students to do the Winter Olympics and not have to sacrifice either a scholarship or being enrolled full–time to keep progress with the degree was a really important thing that we achieved,” Gayeski said. 

Junior Katelyn Smith, a television and digital media major, has been able to accomplish her dreams of working professionally in media production. As an underclassman, she acquired a remote internship with NBC, working on its graphics integration team during Fall 2023. Smith said this internship helped to set the stage for her gig during the Olympics. 

“It was the same team I was working with all throughout last school year, so I got to kind of learn how they work and the systems that they used,” Smith said.

Smith said her team essentially acted as a middleman between the creative team and the on-air operators. They would take the statistics from the creative team and help format the numbers to get them ready to be displayed on air.

Smith, who is a producer for Bombers Live for ICTV, credits ICTV for preparing her for professional field work at such a young age. 

“ICTV was a big reason for me getting the job,” Smith said. “I was able to learn these really unique skills that transferred into that internship.”

Alexandra Barbaro ’24 also credits ICTV for helping her land a job at NBC during the 2024 Summer Olympics. Barbaro said she had a plethora of experiences with ICTV, including being a technical director, replay operator and an AD, which got her ready for jobs like working in media at the Olympics. 

However, Barbaro said that beyond the hands-on experiences she got at the college, it was the connections that she made that she believes is what set her apart from other applicants. 

“The way you talk to people and the connections that you grow, that’s a skill you learn at Ithaca,” Barbaro said. “I think once you can kind of hone in on that, it takes you further than your resume will.”

Barbaro was a production assistant during the Olympics and had a variety of roles ensuring that all the live feeds were going smoothly.

“I worked in the central tape department and my main responsibilities were watching all the feeds of every single sport,” Barbaro said. “Making sure they were recording properly, making sure we can hear the announcers and that we can hear the world feed.”

All four of these Bombers used college connections to get set on their professional paths in sports and media coverage. Slusher said his message to current and future Park students is to keep an open mind and take advantage of every opportunity that Ithaca provides. 

“It’s always important to be open and honest with yourself about opportunities that are out there,” Slusher said. 

Barbaro now has a position working as a production assistant for the NBA and joins the long list of Park students working in the industry with Smith, Dillon and others ready to follow suit. Barbaro said students need to listen to their professors, even if what they are saying seems mundane.

“I didn’t believe how important it was, but I fully believe that’s what helped me land my position with the Olympics,” Barbaro said.