Addison Boggs - '24
SWU Senior Boggs Carries Media Skills From Campus to Channel 7
When Addison Boggs arrived at SWU as a volleyball player, she already had a hint of her future career. In high school, she photographed and filmed her school’s baseball team during their journey to the state championship. Now, as a graduating senior in Media Communications, she’s turning that early interest into a promising career in sports broadcasting through an internship at WSPA Channel 7, Spartanburg’s CBS affiliate.
Working alongside Sports Director Pete Yanity, Boggs has quickly proven herself capable of handling major assignments. “My first week there, Pete was like, ‘Can you edit this clip of Dabo Swinney for us? We’re gonna put it on the air tonight,’” she recalls. “I cut it and pieced it together, and then we sent it up to the air and it aired. That’s something I never really would have thought would have happened at any kind of internship.”
The internship has Boggs covering everything from high school football to Clemson basketball. One particularly memorable moment came when she covered a game at her alma mater, West-Oak High School in Westminster. “My clip aired on TV,” she says with pride. “That was just really cool because nobody comes out to West-Oak, but they did that day.”
Boggs credits her success to the hands-on experience she gained in SWU’s Media Communications program. “[Dr. Lewis Knight] teaches us the terminology that would be used in a newsroom,” she explains. “We learn how to do stand-ups, how to frame shots, how to do interviews and how to shoot B-roll and put it all together.” This practical knowledge, combined with classroom experience using industry-standard software like Adobe Premiere Pro, has given her a significant advantage in a real newsroom.
The journey hasn’t been without challenges. “I can shoot really well, and I can edit really well,” Boggs admits, “but when it comes down to writing my voiceover and talking about these students that I don’t know, I struggle.”
Yet she’s seeing improvement, particularly when covering familiar territory like Clemson sports. One of her proudest moments came during Clemson basketball’s exhibition match against Augusta. “I got to take all that footage back to the studio,” she says, “and put together a package that, had I been a reporter, would have definitely aired.”
Looking ahead, Boggs has her sights set on graduate studies in Athletic Leadership at Clemson University, where she hopes to combine her media expertise with her passion for sports. Her dream job? Working for organizations like the Greenville Drive, the ACC Network, or ESPN, creating documentary-style features about athletes.
As she prepares to graduate, Boggs can see her growth through the lens of her internship experience. Looking back at footage from her early weeks at WSPA, she notes how much her on-camera presence has evolved. “I just kind of sat there and laughed,” she says. “I look nothing like that now. I don’t talk like that anymore. It’s just so funny to watch myself grow in six weeks.”