State Communications Staff Wins Second ChangeMaker Innovation Award

STARKVILLE – For the second time in the award's four-year history, Mississippi State has received the College Sports Communicators ChangeMaker Innovation Award. State is the first school to win the award multiple times.

MSU's winning initiative centered on preparing students at MSU for careers in athletic communications. Associate director of communications Brian Ogden developed and taught an "advanced class" for the department's student interns in the fall semester. This optional course, held weekly with guest speakers and meetings with coaches, focused on basic writing, InDesign skills, game notes research, social media planning and execution, story pitching, building award nominations and more.

In addition to the class, efforts to enhance the internship program as a whole included a career-long advancement checklist that roadmapped annual milestones for the students to mark their improvements, growths and achievements in specific skills and tasks required to be a successful sports communicator. All graduating students also completed mock job interviews and an exit interview to evaluate the program's success.

"This class was optional for our students who truly see this as a future career path for themselves," Ogden said. "Out of a staff of 18 students in the fall, I had six sign up for the course. We met every Tuesday night for an hour, and they worked on their assignments at home or during free office hours as they would for any other collegiate course. A highlight of the course was the opportunity to meet individually with head coaches to discuss recruiting points and key messages and priorities before developing a 2-3 month social media calendar for them."

The efforts began nearly a year ago when staff structure was modified, and Ogden took full responsibility for leading the department's internship program. Senior associate A.D. of communications and creative Brandon Langlois first pitched the idea of written case studies for the student staff to complete. Ogden took that idea and partnered with MSU's Dr. Rebecca Robichaux-Davis, who serves as the University's director of the Quality Enhancement Plan, and a colleague at Tennessee that teaches a class on the Knoxville campus to develop the semester-long curriculum.

This is the fourth year of the ChangeMaker Innovation Award. Mississippi State also won the award in 2021 for its efforts in creating virtual press boxes online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The award recognizes individual CSC members or departments who have created and managed innovative content during the current academic year. The purpose is to recognize forward-thinkers who bring new ideas to life — and strengthen the position of sports communicators and creatives and their work — with special content, a branding and messaging campaign, new storyteller packages, social media initiatives, a digital series and other initiatives.

Additional winners in 2024 included Colorado's development of an official scoring software for collegiate skiing, Kennesaw State's basketball ticket campaign and Minnesota State Moorhead's National Girls and Women in Sports Day content.

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Mississippi State University Athletics

State Communications Staff Wins Second ChangeMaker Innovation Award

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