USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences sophomore Grace Borrego, who desires to work for an expert basketball league after commencement, left USC’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day occasion on Feb. 2 feeling extra motivated than ever.
She joined greater than 150 different Trojans at a collection of panels about ladies reshaping prospects in athletics, in enterprise, in media and in management.
“Just hearing about all these different journeys that these women have taken and how they were able to be successful has been really inspiring,” stated Borrego, a global relations main. “I’m very passionate about sports, and this is a real cool opportunity as I explore what avenues I want to pursue.”
The occasion, organized by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Gould School of Law and USC Athletics, targeted on ladies who’re breaking limitations and galvanizing the following era to face on their shoulders and construct on their legacy.
An all-star lineup assembled for the event: Kelly Krauskopf, president of WNBA’s Indiana Fever; Vans government Kristy Van Doren-Batson; wellness entrepreneur Nina Westbrook; skilled and Olympic skateboarder Lizzie Armanto; and Olympic BMX silver medalist Perris Benegas.
The conversations inside Wallis Annenberg Hall on USC’s University Park Campus highlighted matters such because the explosive development of the WNBA, NCAA ladies’s basketball and the National Women’s Soccer League; elevated skilled athlete salaries; and profitable model partnerships and media offers.
“What we’re hearing from brands is they love partnering with women athletes because of the authenticity,” Krauskopf stated through the kickoff Q&A with USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay. “There’s a trust level there, and it’s so untapped.”
The ‘Caitlin Clark effect’
Krauskopf spoke concerning the transformative impact of WNBA celebrity Caitlin Clark, the 2024 Rookie of the Year who has turn into a family identify throughout the nation. Clark’s reputation has resulted in large attendance and viewership boosts for the league.
“Sometimes it just takes one,” Krauskopf stated. “She has massive, mass-market appeal. The idea was that at some point, society is going to catch up with what’s happening with the sport and there will be value, there will be tickets sold. There will be this attention.”
Krauskopf and a number of other audio system celebrated the alternatives feminine athletes have now to attach with followers and craft their very own narratives by way of social media, digital advertising and marketing and podcasts.
“We grew up in a time where we were sort of at the mercy of the media,” stated Westbrook, a former UCLA basketball participant who’s founding father of Bene by Nina, a digital wellness group. “They got to set the narrative, got to decide who was going to be spoken about, who was going to be highlighted, and whose voices we’re going to be able to hear.”
Westbrook, an entrepreneur and activist who’s married to NBA participant Russell Westbrook, is completely satisfied “the landscape has changed completely.”
“We’re noticing more and more that people are starting to use their voices,” Westbrook stated. “We have more control than ever before.”
Becoming a task mannequin by necessity
Armanto realized how rather more management she may have over her profession as soon as she started dominating her sport.
Early in her skateboarding profession, she had been content material simply to be getting free footwear from Vans. She by no means dreamed that at some point the corporate can be promoting a professional mannequin shoe named after her.
After putting first within the World Cup of Skateboarding factors race for 3 years in a row then successful gold in 2013 at the primary ever Women’s Skateboard Park occasion at X Games, Armanto realized her business worth. In 2014, she employed her first supervisor — a transfer beforehand extraordinary for a lady in her sport.
“I was able to go into Vans with my manager and say, ‘I have an Instagram following and I feel like there’s interest here,’” she stated. “We were able to get a contract in place, which opened the door for not just me, but eventually other people.”
Van Doren-Batson helped pave the way in which for Armanto and different feminine action-sport athletes throughout the Vans universe. Once in her place as director of occasions and activations, Van Doren-Batson instantly launched a profitable marketing campaign for pay fairness.
“I’m sorry that it took forever, but we made a statement that you will be paid equally in action sports,” stated Van Doren-Batson, who’s the granddaughter of the corporate’s co-founder.
Benegas, a silver medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Freestyle BMX world champion, stated she wouldn’t have been in a position to have an athletic profession and journey the world with out advances in pay fairness.
“When I was a little girl, there wasn’t a path,” Benegas stated. “Now there are younger women who get to have a vision, a clear vision, and an opportunity. The sky is the limit.”
Students impressed by panelists
After the formal program, attendees had the chance to satisfy with sports-related firms that included the Los Angeles Rams, Fox Sports, AEG Worldwide, Women in Sports & Events (WISE) and Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
USC Annenberg graduate pupil Hadley Snyder, who performs on the USC ladies’s soccer crew, visited some tables and requested a number of questions.
Snyder stated she now feels higher about not having time for any internships throughout her collegiate profession after listening to Westbrook share that she confronted the identical state of affairs whereas taking part in basketball at UCLA.
“I feel like I related to her a lot and how she translated what she learned in college sports to her career,” Snyder stated. “You’re learning the intangibles and things like communication and collaboration, and those things really do translate to the workforce.”
Several of the audio system pressured that if you happen to work to the perfect of your skill, “someone higher up will see that.” This resonated with USC Annenberg sophomore Annika Rouse.
“You’ll be able to get to the point where they’re at now, but you’ve got to do the little stuff in order to get to the big stuff,” Rouse stated. “It’s nice to see that people who are just like me are in these really big positions because it shows me that I can get there if I work just as hard.”