Hello everyone! I’m Griffin Della Penna, a double major in journalism and strategic communication at Canisius. I’ve been a Media & Content intern at Pegula Sports & Entertainment since September, and it’s rewarding to reflect on how much I’ve grown in the past few months.

The fall semester was a great opportunity for me to see all that the department had to offer. I was on a schedule where I would shadow different teams like social media, production, our writers, etc. After being able to get hands-on experience, I realized what my true interests were, and formulated a plan with my internship mentor for the second half of the internship.

My current career aspirations are to be an on-air TV personality as a pre/postgame host for a professional sports team. The easiest way for me to make those dreams a reality is to become a team reporter and over time opportunities to be on TV will occur.

Due to this, my role as a writer for both the Sabres and Bandits websites has vastly increased. I took the initiative to ask our two writers (Chris Ryndak and Jourdon LaBarber) for more story assignments, as well as sit down with them to learn how I could improve. Due to me being a thorn in their side, I gained their trust to become the lead writer for the Bandits and the next-man-up on Sabres coverage.

I have discovered a true love for writing feature pieces on players for fans to get a look at the athlete behind the scenes. My favorite story that I wrote in this internship was with Bandits forward Chris Cloutier who opened up about his weight gain that nearly led to the end of his lacrosse career. A goal of mine is to do similar stories with Sabres players after the Olympic break because I believe sometimes fans get jaded and may forget that these players are people too that go through similar hardships like all of us.

The more I continue to write the fewer revisions are needed to be edited, and the more comfortable I feel writing on deadline. Even though I have drilled down my interests to writing and reporting, I still would like to stay as diverse as possible with the ability to do whatever a future employer asks me to do.

I’m super excited to see what the rest of the semester has in store, and I will fill you in with updates over the course of the semester.

(Please enjoy this timer selfie in the press conference room during the second intermission at KeyBank Center against the Lightning earlier this month)