Students find gold in Olympics internship

Unlike their countrymen vying for Olympic gold in front of the camera, much of the work of two Knights will take place behind it.

Daniel Crowther, a junior majoring in interpersonal and organizational communications, and junior finance major Austin "A.Jay" Nelson will intern at the summer Olympics.

Crowther will be logging the diving and swimming event. He will review footage for the producers and directors of the event and choose what he feels is important.

"They go back to try to find certain events or a certain play, a dive, anything they feel relevant to a piece or to put on live television," Crowther said.

Nelson is still waiting for his exact assignment from NBC.

Crowther, who has been best friends with Nelson since middle school, told Nelson about the opportunity while they were working together at an NBC-televised golf tournament. Nelson then decided to apply.

"You could say Dan is my best friend; we're more like brothers. [We] hang out all the time," Nelson said. "It's great that me and him will get this experience. It will be great to experience this with one of my closest friends."

Hopping the pond to London will be a step up from providing newspapers and food to cameramen on the golf course.

"Other than the fact that I'll be at the Olympics in London, it will be a great opportunity to set myself up for a more steady job with a real title," Nelson said.

He hopes the internship will open up an opportunity to work for NBC or the Olympics staff in the future.

For the four weeks Crowther and Nelson will be in London over the summer, they will be receiving internship credit through UCF. They did have to pay for the airfare, but NBC is reimbursing both students the cost of the credit and putting up the cost of room and board.

Nelson credits receiving the internship to persistence.

"A couple times when I had first sent in my application, they said they would get back to me about a phone interview," Nelson said. "After a little bit, they had not gotten back to me, so I called and emailed. After the interview, they said they'd get back to me again. Then they hadn't called back, and I called them back."

Nelson said that strongly expressing his dedication and commitment helped him land the position.

"It's going to be really cool to be behind the scenes of such a big event for the world, and [it] will be a good experience," Crowther said.

Crowther's also looking forward to seeing Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. He's looking beyond that into the future, though.

"I would love for it to turn into a job opportunity," Crowther said. "You never know what is going to happen."