“Be humble, be consistent and be a solver,” said Charli Turner Thorne, basketball scout and former Phoenix Mercury assistant coach and ASU women’s basketball coach, as she inspired the Cronkite School’s inaugural cohort of Women Leaders in Sports Media at an Aug. 20 welcome event. “Challenges are going to be there. You have to be ready for it, have the right mindset, be a go-getter, and be true to your character and integrity.”
Women Leaders in Sports Media (WLSM) is a new live-learn community empowering undergraduate women pursuing sports journalism degrees as leaders within sports media and the Cronkite School. WLSM members are incoming first-time, first-year students with a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher admitted to the bachelor’s degree in sports journalism program; they reside together in the Gordon Commons residence hall on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. Members receive partial scholarships, as well as membership to the Association of Women in Sports Media and access to exclusive programming and special outings throughout their undergraduate careers.
The inaugural WLSM cohort features 12 women representing seven states, from Hawaii to Arizona to New York. (Their favorite professional athletic teams are just as varied: The group includes fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Vancouver Canucks, San Francisco 49ers, Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 and the Mexican national football team.) Four students are the first in their families to attend college, and two are students in Barrett, the Honors College.
“We launched Women Leaders in Sports Media to position these high-achieving women as leaders in the Cronkite School community from the very start of their academic careers,” said Jessica Pucci, senior associate dean. “Each year, this sisterhood of trailblazers will grow, and as they connect with media professionals, athletes, and each other, they’ll form a network that will undoubtedly change the future of sports media.”
Shortly after WLSM was created in spring 2024, an anonymous donor generously stepped forward to support the program’s launch and provide scholarships for initial members.
“Media is best served when a diversity of voices are telling the stories,” said Professor of Practice Paola Boivin, who teaches in the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau.
Boivin, who also serves as the faculty adviser for the Cronkite chapter of the Association of Women in Sports Media, worked for two decades as a sports writer and columnist with the Arizona Republic before joining the school to teach sports journalism and mentor early-career women.
“Although I’ve seen strides in the amount of women that are in the sports media industry since I started, the numbers are nowhere near what they should be. We want to help change that,” she said.
Turner Thorne, the winningest coach in Sun Devil women’s basketball history, left WLSM members with wise leadership advice: “Be women who support other women — even better, women who empower other women,” she said. “Helping someone else is never going to hurt you.”
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Women Leaders in Sports Media is made possible by the generous supporters who believe in the power of women to advance sports journalism and communication. Make a gift to support WLSM today.