Hannah Roebke is spending the fall semester of her senior year in Washington, D.C., working as a production associate for the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team.
The broadcasting and sports media and communication double major first joined the Nationals last spring as a video production associate, working with the production director and crew to run the big screen during home games.
She stayed with the team over the summer as a game production associate. Now, she continues to elevate her work by producing games, editing highlight videos and still helping to run the big screen as a production team member.
Roebke's path to her dream role working for the Nationals began in junior high when she started watching the local news every night and realized she wanted to work in media one day.
A few years later, she was a Seward High School senior considering her college options and Nebraska didn't initially make the list. Her perception changed entirely after a campus visit and tour of Andersen Hall.
"The facilities, faculty, and opportunities were unlike anywhere else I visited," Roebke said. "I realized that the education I'd receive at Nebraska would set me up for a successful career."
From the start of Roebke's college career, she's taken full advantage of those aforementioned opportunities. During her first semester, she applied to be a CoJMC student ambassador and began giving tours to prospective students.
"I really like talking to prospective students, hearing what their interests are, and showing them how they can be successful by coming to CoJMC," Roebke said. "I love showing all the opportunities available to students and explaining how they can get involved from their first day on campus."
During her first year, she also joined the Nebraska Nightly news team. There, she gained experience as a student reporter, which propelled Roebke to her first summer internship as a media production intern for the Lincoln Saltdogs pro baseball team.
Between her first role with the Saltdogs and today with the Nationals, Roebke built her skillset through multimedia internships at KOLN 1011 News, the National Corn Growers Association and HuskerVision.
She also credits her college courses and professors for significantly impacting her education. In JOUR 303: Editing for Digital Media, she learned to publish her work online and design a digital portfolio website. In SPMC 350: Sports Data Analysis and Visualization, she was challenged to learn code and analyze numbers, helping her to better understand sports statistics.
CoJMC faculty member and lecturer Bill Doleman has been an instrumental mentor throughout Roebke's college experience. In the spring semester of her sophomore year, she took Doleman's beginning sports writing course, and this semester, he's the instructor for her sports media and communication capstone course.
"Bill's willingness to share not only industry lessons and advice but also life advice has been so helpful as I look to get into the industry," Roebke said.
Roebke's advice to first-year students is to have an open mind and be willing to try something new because that mindset led to so many opportunities throughout her time at the J School.
"There are so many different avenues within the media industry," Roebke said. "By being open to trying something new or saying yes to a new opportunity, you may find another avenue that you love and want to pursue."
