I GREW UP IN: Austin, Texas.
AS A KID, I PLAYED: I was a dancer for 10 years before I played lacrosse. I dabbled in dance and volleyball, and then went full on into lacrosse in middle school up through college.
ON THE HILL, I PLAYED: Lacrosse.
AND I STUDIED: Art with a specialization in Graphic Design. I also had a triple minor in Sports Management, Art History, and Marketing.
I ALWAYS DREAMED OF: Telling the stories of people playing sports professionally. I was never somebody who wanted to play sports professionally. I wanted to tell the stories. I grew up watching ESPN and it was always in the back of my mind, but I never wanted to be a reporter on screen. I just wanted to be behind the screen. There’s even a picture of me as a kid wearing a shirt that says, “You can’t spell princess without ESPN.”
I REALIZED I COULD WORK IN SPORTS WHEN: I really fell in love with design in high school and realized maybe I could cover sports on social media with my design skills. But it wasn’t until college that I realized there are actual jobs where people document sports and that it’s not just a part-time job. Somebody’s whole life is documenting what a team or a sport is doing.
HOW I BROKE INTO THE INDUSTRY: Getting internships in the field! Professor Chloe Irla encouraged me to go and apply for internships. The Jan Term of my sophomore year, I shadowed the creative department at the University of Texas and ended up with an internship with the Longhorns for 2½ years. The summer after my junior year, I also worked for Athletes Unlimited. The relationships I forged at Texas led to an opportunity to create social media content, TikTok specifically, live from the College Football Playoff National Championship during my senior year. That opened doors to ESPN, where I got an internship after graduation. About a month into the internship, they encouraged me to apply for a full-time position, and I started as a full-time social media designer in August 2022!
Professor Chloe Irla encouraged me to go and apply for internships. The Jan Term of my sophomore year, I shadowed the creative department at the University of Texas and ended up with an internship with the Longhorns for 2½ years.
KAYLEN BUSCHHORN ’22, ESPN
MY JOB IN A NUTSHELL: I’m not focused on one team or even one sport. I am covering every sport every day of the week. I work from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the West Coast in Los Angeles. I work in the live window, the prime time of live sports which is fun, fast-paced, and competitive. Most of my day is going through requests for graphics and prioritizing what I can get done before we hit the live window and need to be watching the games and creating graphics on the spot. No two days are ever the same. I am the college football lead this year, so my Saturdays are all college football, all day. But throughout the week, I’ll be watching everything.
WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT MY JOB: I am never bored! It’s very fast-paced and that’s why I fell in love with working in sports. I like to have things moving quickly. I also get to go on-site to events, so in the past year, I’ve been on-site at lots of events, including College Game Day for Texas-Bama, WNBA and NBA games, and I even went to a draft party for Alyssa Thompson’s No. 1 draft pick in the NWSL. I sometimes can’t believe I get paid to watch sports all day.
THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF MY JOB: Not being afraid of trying new things, failing, making a mistake, and learning from it. For example, hockey? Not my sport. But throughout my job, I’ve worked on hockey a couple of times. I have to learn new sports all the time, but we’re also learning new programs and technology, too. Pushing myself to do things I didn’t think I could do is challenging, but it’s also a lot of fun.
WHAT’S NEXT? I’m looking forward to growing in my position. Since social media changes every day, it’s hard to know what it will look like in five months, much less five years. I am just focusing on building my skills, networking, and connecting with people so that when the sports landscape or the social media landscape shifts, I can grow with it.