An Athlete Behind the Camera
An athlete's perspective
My name is Allan Haye, and I’m a senior at Temple University majoring in Advertising with a concentration in Brand Strategy, Class of 2025. This semester, I’m interning with the Digital Media team at Temple University Athletics, based in the STAR building. In this role, I assist with creating and editing photo and video content that supports the department’s social media and promotional efforts.
As both a student-athlete and an advertising major, I’ve always enjoyed watching Temple athletics content on social media. However, this semester I received the opportunity to help build the university brand from a different perspective. Through this internship with the Temple Athletics media team, I now spend time at Temple Athletics sporting events crafting the posts that spotlight our university’s teams.
My work involves shooting and editing photos and short clips captured from the events. Those images go live across Temple’s platforms to spark fan conversation and show our athletes in action, so it matters that they feel real, not staged. Watching the behind the scenes has taught me how much time, creativity, and teamwork it takes to capture a sporting event.
What makes the job personal is that I approach it as an athlete. Working with the people who normally take pictures of me has been really interesting and surprisingly a lot of fun. Now I see how detailed edits and a solid narrative shape the public image of a team and its players. This has helped me to appreciate all the people who work hard in this role to capture the beauty of both the sport and its athletes. With my experience in this position, my passion for visual media and content creation has deepened further than I predicted it would. I look forward to building on what I’ve learned and continuing to grow in this field.
Hi Allan, I’m so glad to hear that your internship has been going well. I find it really inspiring that you were able to take something that you’re actually passionate about and channel it into the role you’re doing. Since you already enjoy attending sports events on your own time outside of work, I think it’s important to be able to incorporate something like that, which brings you joy in your line of work, as that’s what you’re going to be spending a large chunk of your time each week doing. You shouldn’t feel stuck or like you have to settle for anything that doesn’t stimulate your mind. It’s especially cool when you combine that with another passion of yours, which is content creation. This seems like the perfect opportunity for you and I’m excited for you to be able to continue down this path in the future. It also allows for a much smoother transition into the role starting out, as you already possess a lot of the skills and knowledge it takes. It’s good that you’re still so eager to learn more in this position despite coming into it already possessing a lot of the knowledge on your own. I’d imagine it’s a cool feeling to be on the other side of it for once, since you’re used to being one of the people getting your photo taken at these events. With that experience, you clearly know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to that content, and what the players want to see. Good luck with the rest of your summer!
Hi Allan, it was great to read about your experience as an intern for Temple University Athletics’ Digital Media team. As someone who has a passion for photography, this was a particularly enjoyable read. I know how rewarding it can be when you see your images go live on a platform after putting in so much time and effort to edit them. It’s not often that people think about the arts and sportsmanship being interconnected, but your experience certainly proves that to be true. The fact that you got to experience a different side of your passion for athletics through this internship is incredible. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Allan, I enjoyed reading about your internship with Temple Athletic’s digital media team. It’s so cool that you got to work with the athletics social team, while being a student-athlete yourself! It must have been pretty cool knowing how both the student-athlete side works and now knowing how the social media side for the school’s athletics works too.
I love this! As a student athlete myself It was probably so fun being on the other side of college athletics along with being a great way to learn in grow in your area of interest. It’s one thing to see the graphic posted, but to be a part of the creation and behind the scenes makes it so much more magical.