Pontiac Daily Leader
IOWA CITY, Iowa With stadiums, arenas and other sports venues filled with cardboard cutouts of fans and prerecorded crowd noise due to COVID-19, television viewership has never been so important in keeping current fans engaged as well as luring in new fans.
During a first-time practicum course in fall 2020, 30 Iowa students, a group that included Hannah Conlisk of Chenoa, worked with executives from NASCAR and Fox Sports to develop promotional campaigns to increase awareness, engagement and viewership of the sport s 2021 opener, the Daytona 500.
At the end of the semester, the students pitched their campaigns to Matt Nordby, NASCAR senior director of broadcast and industry communications, and Erik Arneson, Fox Sports vice president of media relations. Dan Matheson, associate professor of instruction and director of the Iowa sport and recreation management program, who led the course, says the students rose to the occasion.
Pontiac Daily Leader
Kyle Miller, an agricultural teacher at Prairie Central High School, has been named a finalist for Ag Educator of the Year in Illinois through Nationwide’s Golden Owl Award. This award recognizes the tremendous contributions of agricultural teachers in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania in preparing the next generation of young people for successful careers in agriculture.
Each finalist will receive $500 in funding and the teachers will be entered into a final selection stage for the chance to be selected as their state’s Ag Educator of the Year. In spring 2021, one finalist from each state will be chosen as the grand-prize winner and will receive the designation of Ag Educator of the Year, a $3,000 Nationwide-funded cash award and the coveted Golden Owl Award trophy.