For the past 5 years I’ve become more and more invested and interested in media and its function in our lives, especially pertaining to sports. I’ve always understood how important the media can be in telling sports stories, but the last 5 months at Special Olympics has only confirmed this for me. As a Media, Journalism, and Film major at Howard University, it was required to complete an internship during my final year. I’m infinitely grateful that I got to spend this semester with Special Olympics and work with the Content and Storytelling team.
I worked as a Media Management & Content Librarian intern, but thankfully, I was involved in different aspects of the department outside of my formal duties. This was a huge benefit of my internship, as I was able to see more of the organization as a whole, and learn more, even if I was playing a small role. My main responsibility involved media management, where I organized and applied metadata to thousands of photos, some from previous Special Olympics competitions and events, and many from the 2025 World Winter Games in Turin. I worked at Special Olympics Headquarters in DC, where I was able to track and organize all of the photos and video assets that came in from Turin each day during Games.
A huge part of my job was making sure all the photo and videos assets were ready for public distribution, which included ensuring that they had all the necessary metadata, like the photographer’s name, correct copyright, location, etc. I loved seeing all the photos come in from Turin, especially because it was something different everyday, whether it was photos from a Snowshoeing award ceremony, or a Healthy Athletes clinic. The photos themselves told a story.
I had many different experiences throughout my internship, which all allowed me to learn something new, and different aspects of our department at Special Olympics. In addition to ensuring all the metadata was accurate on the photos from Turin, I also helped ensure the privacy/visibility settings were correct for the photo and video assets. Prior to games, it was also important that the communication was clear between myself, the other media managers, the photographers, and my team to make sure we got through Games smoothly. After Games, I received the full archive from three of the regions, Special Olympics Africa, Europe Eurasia, and Latin America, which contained their photos from the World Winter Games in Turin. I organized and uploaded all of those for public viewing. I also had the opportunity to edit a Cheers for Champions video, a short clip featuring two Snowshoeing athletes preparing to compete in Turin. I’m grateful that I was able to attend so many team meetings and learn from a variety of tasks during the semester.
This internship has had a huge influence on me and my perspective. I achieved the goals I set at the start of the semester, which were to learn about the different aspects of large sporting events and how the media works during Games. I got to witness this up close, especially in the weeks leading up to Turin, where I got to sit in on meetings where the team discussed organization and communication with the photographers, and laid out all the logistics for their accommodation. Outside of my direct work, I learned so much from Special Olympics, both on an organizational and personal level. I enjoyed learning about how Special Olympics are involved in so many different regions of the world and how the movement affects so many people’s lives. The internship also broadened my perspective on people with intellectual disabilities, or ID, and all that they are capable of. I knew of this for a long time but seeing it up close, from within the organization, was significant. Working with the photos and videos from the 2025 World Winter Games, as well as previous games and Special Olympics events has offered a new perspective for me, as I was able to see different aspects of the athletes’ hard work, leadership, and determination in their respective sports. I came away from this internship with reaffirmation of my interest and passion for media, but also more open minded and accepting.
