Digital Natives in our Midst

Digital Natives in our Midst

There are digital natives in your midst, ready and willing to lend you a hand in the sports information office. Full of enthusiasm and excitement, with a passion for sports, College Fanz can help you tap into that precious resource. 
 
Digital natives -- that’s a new one, you’re thinking. What the heck does that mean? First coined by a computer technology expert a few years ago, a digital native is defined as a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, cell phones and MP3 players (or iPods). In other words, a digital native is a typical current college student, who has never known a world without the Internet.
 
When College Fanz introduced the Virtual Pressbox last summer at the CoSIDA Convention in Tampa, many embraced the concept immediately, while a few others were skeptical. As more and more CoSIDA members become aware of how the Virtual Pressbox can actually save them time and money in publicizing the achievements of their teams, coaches and student-athletes, the team at College Fanz continues to make refinements and enhancements.  
 
From widgets that can put America’s College Scoreboard on your school web site and broadcast results through additional channels, to the recent introduction of CoSIDA Community, all our offerings and services are designed to make an SID’s job easier.
 
College Fanz has, since it’s inception on September 7, 2007, offered internship programs to college students around the country. Most interns work as student journalists (columnists) and broadcasters, updating their College Fanz pages about their school and their sports teams, taking digital photos of activities on campus, and shooting their own video clips of field hockey, soccer, wrestling and other campus sports events. There is also a PR/Marketing internship available to students at your college or university.
 
CoSIDA members can work with College Fanz interns to help them update their Virtual Pressbox, and add results and stories about some of your other teams. And who knows, you might be mentoring a future coach or a future SID.
 
College Fanz coordinates their intern program with participating colleges and universities on our network, where students can elect to earn course credits or not. The interns reports to each school’s internship program. We look for people with a passion for college sports, with online research experience, strong oral and written communication skills, attention to detail and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

 
 
Sounds like an SID job, doesn’t it? If you are short on staff right now, and need another student assistant but don’t have the budget, College Fanz now offers CoSIDA members another way to make your job easier. College Fanz interns are eager to help, and eager to learn, and eager to work because they have a passion for sports and a dream of working in sports after graduation. Many a CoSIDA member started in this business as an intern in the sports information office.  
 
Click on the Intern link in the upper right corner of the College Fanz home page for additional information on the College Fanz intern program. You can also send your students to this link to apply for the internship program
 
As always, all our efforts at College Fanz are part of our ongoing commitment to CoSIDA, and our goal of simplifying an SID’s workload while enhancing each school’s online exposure and opportunities. We invite your feedback directly through our web site or you can call 888-845-6316 and ask for Jim DeLorenzo.
 
And be sure to check out our other articles recently published on the CoSIDA web site: