Noah Apodaca will begin his senior year at New Mexico State University this fall after a once-in-a-lifetime internship with NBC Sports during the Paris 2024 Olympics in July and August.
NMSU is among a number of universities partnering with NBCU Academy, collaborating on internships, training, and development programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Apodaca will spend a month working as part of a team involved in streaming Olympic events online.
Apodaca chose NMSU because of its reputation for strong programs in broadcast journalism and digital media. He has worked as a reporter and forecaster on NMSU’s News22 program, a student-run newscast produced and anchored by students with guidance from journalism professors Hugo Perez and Nick Miller.
Although he has worked in other internships, including those with El Paso TV news stations and for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, Apodaca was intimidated knowing that students from large schools like UCLA and Arizona State University were also applying for the same internship.
The biggest challenge Apodaca anticipates will be working on the East Coast. A Las Cruces native, he’s never lived anywhere else, but he is looking forward to going outside his comfort zone, being a short train ride away from New York and particularly Manhattan.
Apodaca has availed himself of every opportunity at NMSU to expand his experience. In addition to broadcasting, he was a staff writer for the student newspaper The Round Up as well as writing for the online magazine Kokopelli. Apodaca is grateful to journalism professor Darren Phillips, who also mentored students on Kokopelli, for his guidance and support in applying for the NBC internship.
He credits his confidence in applying for various hands-on internships to his professors’ support and encouragement. Whether this internship will help steer his future career toward broadcasting or not, Apodaca is remaining open.
