Victoria Chiesa: In the Wide World of Sports

by Cecil Harris

With Adelphi University set to launch its online Master of Science in Sport Management program in Spring 2015, more students will gain exposure to the wide range of opportunities in sports, as undergraduates such as Victoria Chiesa can attest. 

Chiesa, a senior from Hicksville, New York, has interned at CBS Sports, World Team Tennis and Newsday, covered the 2014 U.S. Open Tennis Championships as a freelancer for Tennis View magazine and started her own website, thetennisisland.com.

“The sport management program at Adelphi is great in a variety of ways,” said Chiesa, an Honors College student with a double major in sport management and communications. “If you want to work in sports, you have so many different directions you can go in.”

Experiential learning is essential to Adelphi’s sport management program in the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education. Chiesa fulfilled her practicum requirement as a social media intern at CBS Sports in Spring 2014 during the network’s coverage of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.

Chiesa worked with her academic adviser, Greg Letter, Ph.D., director of the sport management program, to chart a manageable schedule as a full-time student while she handled simultaneous internships at CBS Sports and Newsday.

“Victoria possesses strong communication skills and regularly enhances the learning experience in the classroom by sharing her thoughts and, at times, professional experiences,” said Dr. Letter, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Exercise Science, Health Studies, Physical Education and Sport Management.

When Chiesa interned at World Team Tennis, she met tennis legend Billie Jean King and future Hall of Fame players Andy Roddick and Victoria Azarenka.

“I worked with the communications manager—managing social media, writing press releases, calling people for interviews,” Chiesa said. “World Team Tennis also has a partnership with tennis.com, so I got to write articles for the website.”

Chiesa learned the importance of writing well while taking History of Sports Broadcasting, a course taught by Al Trautwig ’78, the Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC Sports and MSG Network. She is the current editor-in-chief of Adelphi’s student newspaper, The Delphian. While working for The Delphian, the paper has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island: Best College Sports Reporting, 2013; Best College Newspaper, first place, 2013, and second place, 2014.

Collegiate athletic administration also interests Chiesa. She has considered becoming a graduate assistant in Adelphi’s Department of Athletics, where she’s currently a student worker.

“Victoria has been an absolute asset to our department,” said Adam Siepiola, M.B.A. ’12, associate athletic director and director of external relations. “I’ve watched her grow as a person as her responsibilities have grown. She is someone that we can rely on and trust, who will do a professional job no matter what task we give her.”