Collegiate Times

Ever wondered who puts together the Hokie Replay or the player profiles you see on the JumboTron in Lane Stadium during TV timeouts or in Cassell Coliseum on the scoreboard during basketball games? Megan Caligiuri, Stefanie Bartholic, Mike Russell, Amanda Totten, Laura Prangley and Kevin Sanders are the six video athletic department student interns who put those packages together, in addition to managing and contributing to other tasks, like filming practice, editing, covering other sporting events, etc.

Caligiuri, Russell, Totten and Prangley are all juniors this year, while Bartholic and Sanders are sophomores. The first step towards obtaining the internship typically begins with an interview with the men in charge, Kevin Hicks and Tom Booth. The six interns all interviewed in the spring semester of their freshman year and will be interns until they complete their undergraduate coursework at Virginia Tech.

The three-and-a-half year internship offers great perks, such as experience, scholarships and free Tech gear, to name a few. In the name of experience, the interns do a lot. ?We tape and edit football practice and drills, upload it to the coaches, set up for sporting events. We film Olympic sports (sports besides football and basketball, such as soccer, baseball, volleyball, etc.), tape basketball games, work replays for the football and basketball games, work the video board, put live broadcasts of the Olympic sports online and put together packages like Hokies in the Community and Gameday Matchup,? Caligiuri said. Caligiuri, a junior communication major, estimated that the internship takes up about 30 hours a week. ?We attend practice four days a week, then the game and tape other sports, so it depends, but we usually work anywhere from five to seven days a week,? Caligiuri said.

The interns are also placed on scholarship when they start working. In-state students typically get half their tuition paid as sophomores and full tuition paid as juniors and seniors. For Caligiuri, the situation is changed a bit. ?I?m out of state, so it?s a little different for me. They pay more than half for me now, about $14,000 out of $24,000, I think,? Caligiuri said. ?I pay for school, so it?s a big help. I work at Deet?s, too, one shift, and I?ll pick some up here and there, but the internship comes first.?

The interns also get a lot of free Tech gear. Bartholic, a sophomore accounting major, mentioned some of the items she has received thus far, ?We get Nike orange and white tennis shoes, jackets, hats, T-shirts and leather jackets.?

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