Introducing Interns Austin Courtney, Caroline Weaver

Over the years, TheSabre.com has often featured current University of Virginia students as contributors to the site. This dates all the way back to the Sabre NewsLetter days with freelance writers like current Editor Kris Wright. In recent years, the site has tried to move toward full-time internships for students to spend the entire academic year working with the site with those internships tailored toward the students’ interests.

Full-time interns have included Blair Capps (marketing for a web app company), Miranda Mason (team reporter for the New England Patriots), Paul Montana (newspaper reporter/returned to school), and Bailey Stephens (Major League Baseball Advanced Media).

This year, TheSabre.com currently has two interns working with the site. Introductions for Austin Courtney and Caroline Weaver are below.

Austin Courtney

I am a fourth year media studies major and religious studies minor at the University of Virginia, from Fairfax, Va.

Growing up living in a house with my parents and older brother, Drew, it would have been nearly impossible for me to not become a major sports fan.

I love sports in general because they break down language barriers and are universally understood throughout the world. Sports fascinate me because nothing else has quite the ability to bring people from different backgrounds, ages, races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. together so effectively and cohesively. I also believe that sports are important to society because they serve as teachers of some of the most important life lessons.

Although I’ve been a UVa fan for most of my life, my love for the Virginia Cavaliers was taken to a whole new level my freshmen year of high school when my brother began playing on the men’s tennis team here in 2008. It was during this time that I developed a passion for college sports and an affinity for the Hoos.

I chose to major in media studies because the media is the lens through which people view the world and my hope is to positively influence how people see the world.

During my time at UVa I have contributed to college sports content to WUVAonline and Peach State College Sports. Additionally, Caroline and I created a YouTube video series, “UVA Sports of the Record.” Videos have featured UVA student-athletes including Justin Anderson, Anthony Harris, Canaan Severin, Matt Johns, and Todd Wharton. We created this video series with the mission to give viewers a fun and personal perspective into the lives of UVa’s top student-athletes.

This past summer I interned for Susan Davis International, a Public Relations firm in Washington D.C., where I was nominated for the PR People’s Award- Intern of the Year Award.

I’m really enjoying interning for TheSabre.com because it has offered me an outlet to express my intense passion and love for college sports and specifically for the Virginia Cavaliers. This internship has allowed me to get a behind the scenes look into college sports reporting, has helped me to further develop the skills needed for sports analysis and writing, and has given me the opportunity to get in front of a camera and conduct interviews for the first time.

I couldn’t be more excited to be working with TheSabre.com!

Caroline Weaver

I’m from the DM[V], born and raised here, so it’s always been home. Although I’ve lived here my whole life, I know I’m meant to live in Florida. That year round warm weather is what I’m made for. Despite living in one area my whole life, I’m well traveled and can’t get enough of it.

I have a passion for sports, I’ve been a competitive athlete since I was 4, starting with gymnastics, until soccer took over and I found my true passion. Once you’re an athlete at that level, it can never leave you. I’ve gained my discipline, dedication, communication skills, and competitive nature from sports.

My creativity and individual expression is channeled through my experiences as an athlete, being the best player I can be individually, while maintaining the perspective of what is most beneficial to the team as a whole. I desire to portray other athletes in a positive light, recognize their sacrifices, display their development of life skills, and reveal their successes and failures that have made them who they are today. My passion to work in the sports industry has evolved from these experiences and they drive me to uplift other athletes.

Austin and I created a YouTube video series, “UVA Sports of the Record”, with that in mind. The mission is to give viewers a fun and personal perspective into the lives of UVa’s top student-athletes

Fashion is a hobby. Food is a love … a serious love. I always want to be around people, helping them to reach their goals, gaining insight from them to help achieve mine. I love learning about other people’s interests, their passions, and their creative ideas, as it begins to launch my own entrepreneurial insights.

I’m excited to be working with TheSabre.com!