By Gabbie Granoff '27
Kayla Gregoire is a senior sports journalism major with a minor in political science, an assistant sports editor for The Collegian and has held various internship positions. Using internships at MassLive and Cape Cod Baseball as a foundation, Gregoire was able to score an internship with New England Sports Network this past summer.
Gregoire first got involved with The Collegian the first week of her freshman year. She was assigned to the field hockey beat and eventually started writing for the ice hockey beat. As applications for assistant editor began to roll out, the head sports editor encouraged Gregoire to apply. Gregoire was hesitant to apply since she was only a freshman but the sports editor assured her she would be a great fit for the role.
“So I applied, did the interview, and I somehow got it and I’ve been doing that for three years now,” Gregoire said.
As assistant sports editor, she answers writers’ questions and edits stories. Through her experience with The Collegian, Gregoire was able to secure multiple internships. The first one was with the Cape Cod Baseball League. Next came MassLive. Staff at MassLive regularly look at who is writing for the Collegian and ask the head sports editor which writers stand out to them. Then they will reach out to students to offer them internships.
“I didn’t really have to find it, they came to me,” Gregoire said.
With MassLive, Gregoire started out covering high school sports and worked her way up to pro sports. When she interviewed with the New England Sports Network, they were impressed with her work with MassLive. She was also able to connect over UMass in the interview since one of their employees was a UMass Journalism alum, Adam London ‘16.
Gregoire started with the New England Sports Network in June. Initially, she spent her time as an intern scouring the internet to see what was trending with Boston sports. After four weeks, she was sent out on her first assignment.
“They sent me out to the Boston Bruins development camp, which was really cool,” Gregoire said. “We even got to interview a few NHL players.”
Gregoire attended the development camp solo and got to interview new draft picks, Matt Poitras and Dans Locmelis, along with general manager Don Sweeney.
Gregoire also had the opportunity to go to Patriots training camp with UMass alum Keagan Stiefel ‘22 and Sean McGuire on the last day of her internship. She interviewed a few players at their stations and wrote a couple short stories on her takeaways.
While working at the New England Sports Network, Gregoire got to experience being around pro athletes. Retired Bruins and Red Sox players would often stop by the office.
“You would be sitting in the office and you would get to see the coolest people,” Gregoire said.
Gregoire’s advice to students looking to get internships: Be persistent.
“My freshman year I got absolutely no hits with internships,” Gregoire said. “You kind of have to take advantage of the moment, you have to make sure in those interviews you’re taking advantage of what you know and taking advantage of having The Collegian on your resume…You kind of just have to be persistent and take advantage of what you’re able to.”
Gregoire’s story can be used as a lesson for journalism students: even if you don’t get what you hope for right away, persistence pays off down the road.
Journalism student Samantha Craddock also contributed reporting to this story.