Sacred Heart University congratulates its alumni who won Emmys during the 2023 award season.
Eight alumni from the university took home Emmys for their work at ESPN, Sports Center, NBC Sports and The Wisconsin News.
For some of these alumni, this Emmy was an addition to their preexisting collection of awards.
Contributed by: Victoria Balarezo, SHU alumni
Source: @vicbalarezo on Instagram
Each of these alumni studied at the School of Communication, Media and the Arts (SCMA), where they all took an interest in sports communication. Most of them were also a part of the graduate program, Sports Communication and Media (SCM).
Only two of the alumni were majors outside of the SCM program, consisting of Eric Diaz ‘14 who got his master’s in communications, and Dario Melendez ‘08, a media arts major who both gravitated towards the sports communication world.
Alumna Victoria Balarezo ’19 MA ‘20 got both her bachelor’s and her master’s degree from the university. For her master’s, she was a part of the SCM program. Balarezo currently works at NBC Sports Chicago as a video editor. Her job consists of creating the highlights for the pre-intermission and post-game show for the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox and Bears.
Balarezo won her award for Outstanding Live Special where she was involved in the coverage of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China. There was an online event hosted for the nominees but she missed the livestream and found out she had won through a text from her boss.
“It felt amazing. I feel like now hopefully this will help me grow even more to reach my goals and accomplishments,” Balarezo said.
Balarezo is very thankful for all the professors who helped her along the way and feels they set her up for success. She also feels that her involvement on campus with The Pulse and the live broadcasting experience she has gotten as an undergraduate and graduate student helped her get to where she is today.
Dr. Andrew Miller, the Director of Communications at SHU, said he is thrilled to celebrate the success of the students and that it is a testament to all of their hard work. He said it reflects how the sports communications program has been built up at the university.
Dr. Miller explained, the SCM program strives to bring professionals with real-world experience into the classroom to help teach students the most up-to-date information to prepare them for their future careers.
“In particular I would like to point to full-time faculty members Paul Pabst and Brian Thorne, who walk off playing fields and television studios right into the classroom,” Miller said. “Their great work with SHU students is the foundation of our sports communication program.”
He wants all future and current students to realize that they are also capable of achieving this kind of success and wants all students to aspire towards these goals. “With the dedication and persistence they can be award winners, too,” Miller said.
Junior Helena Medici, a communications major, is inspired by the alumni’s success because she is following a similar path in her studies. In the future, she hopes to work in the Public Relations industry.
“Seeing the success of SHU alumni is so inspiring because coming from a small school in Connecticut and seeing alumni making it to the big screen empowers me that I too can achieve great things,” Medici said.
