On Thursday afternoon, personnel of Fox Sports converged upon the North Carolina campus in regards to a collaboration project with the University.
For the ninth consecutive year, the company is working with UNC under the lens of its Fox Sports University program through the MEJO 634 public relations campaigns class taught by professor Livis Freeman. The students in the course are working together in five groups to pitch projects to members of Fox Sports at the end of the semester.
Jeff Genthner, the senior vice president of Fox Sports South, was one of the ranking members present at the discussion and noted the benefit of the project.
“I think it’s important for both the students but also for Fox Sports,” Genthner said. “From a student's standpoint, these are very, very bright students; there’s no doubt about it.”
The classroom discussion began by the five groups presenting their project names and sharing their contact information with the officials and was followed by a 40-minute visual presentation led by each member of the Fox Sports team. Including Genthner, six people spoke on behalf of the company, including Micaela Asercion and Cati Hance.
Asercion, who along with Hance is facilitating the project, stated the current direction of the Fox Sports University program this year. The project for UNC students focuses on building increased engagement on Instagram.
“So the projects are different every year,” Asercion said. “Currently, we’re working with 12 different schools for the program, and every school has a different project. So some are on different properties. We have some that focus on an MLB team, or we have Minnesota working with Fox Sports North, working with the soccer team. But this is a really cool opportunity because they have such a broad canvas, and they have the connections to the entire network's talent, the entire network's team.”
The students at UNC are the only ones working on this particular project of building engagement on Instagram. Once the presentation concluded, there was a discussion section for students to inquire about the project and ask other questions relating to the company.
The collaboration project not only serves as an opportunity for students to present projects in a professional manner but allows them to build connections with Fox personnel for the future.
