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Through the English department’s internship program, Brett Harvey ’04 (Lutherville, Md.) earned credit last semester while working for Dyestat, a national sports media organization that covers high school track and field through its website, www.dyestat.com.
“My internship consisted of processing meet results and performances for the website as well as being on-site at cross-country and track meets along the northeast,” says Harvey. “I created articles about the meets, including interviews and pictures from them.”
Harvey was one of 11 sportswriters covering meets for Dyestat, devoting almost four hours a day to the internship and spending his weekends at high schools. His coverage schedule included travel to and from the meet, interviews with the athletes and coaches, photography, statistic postings, and the story write-ups. Frequently, he augmented his stories with phone interviews and emails and worked on special assignments.
“The internship was terrific,” says Harvey, who is continuing some work for Dyestat. “I learned a lot about interviewing and also the time and effort that goes into pursuing a vocation in sports writing. As I hope to be a sports writer after college, the internship was a terrific experience for me, and my writing improved quite a bit. It provided me with a lot of computer and Internet experience that has helped me in doing research as well as just familiarizing myself with several aspects of computer journalism.”
John Dye, Dyestat’s founder and owner, was Harvey’s internship supervisor. “Brett has been a tremendous asset to the company,” says Dye. “Using interns was an experiment, with some successes and some failures. Brett is at the top of the list of successes. He completed each assignment with exactness.”
Dye, who was a newspaperman for eight years with the Dayton, Ohio Daily News, believes that Harvey is well suited for a career in sports writing.
“The best thing was the initiative Brett showed on one of his assignments – to surf the Internet and collect top times of cross country runners in California,” says Dye. “After a couple weeks of doing this, Brett realized he was starting to become familiar with the runners and developed a top 15 all-state ranking of California boys and girls, completely unprompted by me. It was professionally done with reasons and references for his rankings. I was hesitant to publish the rankings if we couldn’t follow through with weekly updates based on each week’s performances. Brett assured me he would do this, and he did.”
Several factors led to Harvey’s interest in the internship. “Mr. Dye began his site locally several years ago and as a Maryland high school runner at the time, I was one of the earliest individuals to be exposed to Mr. Dye and what he was doing with his new website at the time,” he explains. “From the start, the idea of sports writing has greatly interested me, and since I am a runner, covering track and cross country is perfect for me.”
Through English courses and training by Dyestat, Harvey has become more comfortable with his writing. “I have written for my high school newspaper and The Lafayette in the past and they prepared me pretty well for the step up that Dyestat provided,” he says. “As the site is seen by runners all over the country, I also feel an obligation to be very careful proofreading and editing my stories. I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to cover a sport I love and also to be able to write about and give credit to the athletes in a sport that traditionally does not get a whole lot of media coverage. It is very refreshing interviewing and talking with runners because it’s so new to them and they are very appreciative of what Dyestat offers them. For many of them, Dyestat and other running websites are the only media coverage they get. Everyone likes to see their accomplishments recognized and I’m proud to be part of a group that does that for the running community.”
Harvey’s academic advisor for the internship was Joseph Martin, associate professor of English. Martin monitored Harvey’s work and critiqued the paper he wrote at the conclusion of the internship.
“The academic environment at Lafayette is great,” says Harvey. “It has provided me with many valuable opportunities and I find the faculty to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable about their subjects. We have so many opportunities, from clubs, to internships and research. Lafayette provides everything that I had hoped it would.”
Harvey is a member of the indoor and outdoor track and field teams and last year wrote for The Lafayette.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Brett Harvey ’04 presented his research on childhood obesity, guided by David Shulman, associate professor of sociology, at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco