Tivoli Freedman’s biggest piece of advice to her fellow students is to take a chance on yourself and connect with people. 

The summer before her senior year Tivoli Freedman, right, interned in Los Angeles for the World Cup, where she was part of the operations team and helped lead the youth program. Photo courtesy of Tivoli Freedman.

While waiting for a flight home to California, she chatted with a woman who was a manager at Fox sports and later connected Freedman with other executives. And cold-messaging contacts on LinkedIn led to her landing an internship with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup.

“I ask to pick people’s brains and for advice for somebody like me who’s up and coming,” she said. “I’ve probably had 200 informational interviews over the past couple of years.”

Freedman is more than just a fan—the San Diego native grew up around sports; her parents and an aunt had careers working major sports events. But working in media wasn’t her first collegiate passion—she enrolled at CU Boulder as a psychology major before getting caught up with the Buffaloes. 

“My whole weekend was consumed by college football, the NFL and MLB, going to games any chance I could get,” she said. “I took a sports media class and changed my major to communication.”

Around the same time she took that first CMDI course, Freedman landed two jobs that laid the groundwork for a career in sports—a freelance production assistant for Fox Sports and an intern for CU Athletics’ recruiting and scouting team.

Though she enjoys the forward-facing aspect of working with student-athletes and designing on-screen graphics for NFL games, she also learned those roles weren’t her calling. Instead, she’s more interested in the planning and operational side of events, especially the big ones like the World Cup.

Ashley Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26), an assistant teaching professor of journalism, called Freedman “a really ambitious student. And you can tell she cares not just about class assignments, but about doing what it takes to be successful beyond CU.”

Freedman took those lessons to heart. Even while she was studying abroad in Barcelona, she was still networking on LinkedIn to make connections in the international sports world. Eventually, she met a manager at FIFA, which led to her working as a partner rights delivery coordinator in Los Angeles. On off days, she helped prepare SoFi stadium for upcoming matches, doing everything from coordinating schedules and partner activations to supporting stadium tours and hospitality services.. On match days, she was in charge of the youth program.

“If you watched any of the prematch ceremonies with the kids holding flags and escorting players, that was me,” she said, smiling. “I always had two headsets on, so I could listen to both the broadcasts and my team, and kind of be the one to start the show.”

Now a senior, Freedman is continuing to gain event operations experience with the Colorado Rockies. She hopes to start a career in the industry after she graduates from CMDI in May—and she feels prepared to do so thanks to experiences she’s had while still a student.

“Working in sports is very competitive, which I didn’t fully realize until I took those classes and got into the industry,” she said. “I would love to work at the Olympics, and then I would love to go to a team or an agency, and get into event operations.”

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.