Experts from The Dallas Mavericks and ABC News Mentor Students in Simulated Crisis Competition
Sports Executive in Residence Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and Journalist in Residence Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC News’ “Nightline,” judged the first crisis communications case study competition at the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication TV studio.
HIGH POINT, N.C., April 3, 2024 – High Point University students were tasked with managing crisis communications in a competition guided and judged by two experts in HPU’s Access to Innovators program during their recent visit to campus.
HPU’s Sports Executive in Residence Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and HPU’s Journalist in Residence Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC News’ “Nightline,” participated in the first crisis case study competition on March 28. They judged how well journalism, strategic communication and sports management students handled a mock scenario that included breaking news of alleged illegal sports betting by a star basketball player at a fictitious university and that university’s response to the allegations.
As more details of the fictitious scandal unfolded, Marshall and Pitts listened in the Callicutt Life Skills Theater as students pitched their ideas on how they would cover the story as journalists and respond from the university’s side.
Winning students and teams were selected for their responses throughout the day. During a second session in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication TV studio, the judges selected the related news ideas of Chloe Brussard, a senior journalism major from Andover, Massachusetts.
A team of students made up of Maggie Selman, Taiz Barata, Bridget Murphy and Nadia Chiarella was selected for the best crisis management response on behalf of the fictitious university. The team said the university would continue to cooperate with the investigation and that the student was not guilty until proven otherwise.
Selman, a senior political science and strategic communication major from Statesville, North Carolina, said she enjoys these classroom activities because they provide practical learning experiences.
“It really is what you are going to have to do in the real world,” said Selman. “Doing this is what makes me feel the most prepared of anything I have done in my degree.”
Marshall said she found it extremely valuable to see students take what they are learning in the classroom, apply it to a real-world situation and have professionals review the ways they would handle it. As The Premier Life Skills University, HPU provides success coaches, connections to innovators such as Marshall and Pitts and experiential learning to help students gain experience that takes years to amass.
“Not just our future, but our present, is in good hands,” Marshall said. “They did a great job. You could tell they are true collaborators. That’s obviously being reinforced here because they had no problem getting into teams. I watched it when two came up to volunteer and the others came to join them. They had no issue forming teams and collaborating. They just started working together. You can tell that’s ingrained in the culture here. They were thoughtful, hungry to learn and very open for the feedback. I enjoyed the exercise, and Byron did, too. I can’t wait for it to happen again next year.”
Pitts said he was struck by the way students demonstrated they have many of the skills employers want, including the ability to communicate with different people, present ideas clearly, work in a team, be coachable, problem solve and persevere.
“They are smart, polite and attentive already,” said Pitts. “We talked about them being a little more aggressive, more forceful with asking questions, respecting authority but being willing to challenge authority.”
During their visit, Marshall and Pitts also had lunch with HPU students and posed for photos with students during a meet-and-greet.