Intern Chronicles: Meet Aniyha Jones, 2024 NABJ-ESPN Stuart Scott Internship-Scholarship Recipient

EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again this summer, Front Row’s Intern Chronicles series showcases some of ESPN’s summer interns. For more information on ESPN Internships, visit the ESPN Careers site.

Aniyha Jones is 2024’s National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) x ESPN Stuart Scott Production Internship Recipient. Jones is the latest honoree in a program that began in 2016 in memory of the legendary SportsCenter anchor who passed away from cancer in 2015.

Like Scott, she was born in Chicago and is a big sports fan. Despite growing up in a family that didn’t care for sports, Jones never missed a Chicago Bulls game.  

Jones completed her undergrad at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studying Marketing with a minor in Sports Management. During her time there, she stayed active in the sports world by creating a podcast called “You’re Wrong, Sir” to discuss sports. 

“The name is a pun on men thinking they know more about sports,” said Jones. 

Jones loves being in front of a camera and talking with guests about sports. Scott was an example of what she could do. 

“For African American people, he was a pioneer for authenticity,” said Jones. “An example of being successful in a professional space while being authentic.” 

She said it was good to hear the language that she used at home on television and when talking about her sports. Scott’s practice of not “code-switching” in a space where everyone didn’t look like him was pioneering; Scott set an example of authenticity for her.

As a production intern with the ESPN NEXT program, Jones produces highlights for SportsCenter. She finds game footage, cuts the video, requests graphics, and writes the script for the anchors – all for the the 10 p.m. ET, 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. SportsCenters.

For Jones, it’s been “crazy and surreal” to do so because she grew up watching SportsCenter.

Her duties vary daily. She’s also worked on transcribing post-game interviews and putting together sports highlights for ABC News affiliates (The Walt Disney Company owns ESPN and ABC).

Her favorite part of the experience has been connecting with others at ESPN – especially Black women. 

“Seeing people like me, you don’t see a lot of people who rub shoulders who look like me and think like me,” said Jones. “I’ve learned of the importance of making an impact behind the scenes in these spaces.”

After working on SportsCenter, she will be moving to First Take, where she will be pitching topic ideas and putting together voice-overs (VO) and sound on tape (SOT). She graduated this June from Northwestern University with a Masters in Journalism, specializing in Sports Media. 

“My big picture has gradually changed from just being on air . . . I’m open to exploring production and capable of doing both,” said Jones. “I want to be impactful in both lanes.”

Sofía Basurto, an intern in ESPN Programming on the Content Scheduling & Strategy and Deportes Team, interviewed Jones for this post. Basurto graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Stuart Scott’s alma mater – with a degree in media and journalism.