The highlight of the semester-long Transatlantic Storytelling project officially started Tuesday, Feb. 27, as 16 students from Ball State’s nationally-recognized sports media production program, Sports Link, departed campus en route to Cardiff, Wales.
You can keep up-to-date with the journey by following @bsusportslink, @CMetSportTV and #TransatlanticStorytelling on all social media platforms.
The 12-day trip, is an on-the-ground, immersive learning experience with students from Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Sport Broadcast program, which much like Sports Link, is the only sports media production program in the United Kingdom.
Students from both universities will collaborate to produce a feature-length documentary on Welsh athletes, plus stream over eight hours of live sports March 6 with a British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Super Wednesday.
Super Wednesday will feature live sports updates from around the Met campus (tennis, netball, field hockey), studio guests, live coverage of a Cardiff Met FC football match, where the Archers could clinch their conference title, and the culmination of the broadcast will be a live stream rugby match of Met vs Leeds for a playoff spot.
The trip also includes cultural immersion experiences in and around Cardiff. Students will tour BBC Wales, Cardiff Castle and the home of Welsh Rugby — Principality Stadium.
Trips include the jaw-dropping Gower Peninsula and Brecon Beacons National Parks, along with a visit to historic Bath, England.
Ball State and Cardiff Met students have been connected virtually since January, learning about each other’s cultures, sports and researching subjects for the project’s post-produced documentary.
In addition to the live broadcasts, eight different subjects — all current or former Cardiff Met student-athletes or sport directors — will be profiled in the documentary.
Feature Subjects
• Liam Mackay
The director of Step into Sport, a collaboration between Sport Cardiff, Cardiff Met and the South Wales Police, working with young people to help with personal confidence and motivation through the vehicle of sport.
• Ewan Guy & Henry Kirwan
Follow Met Rugby coach Dr. Daniel Milton, along with players Ewan Guy and Henry Kirwan as the team prepares for Leeds and learn why the sport of rugby is the nation’s most popular sport.
• Bhavya Doshi
A professional cricket player leading the highly successful Met cricket team while pursuing his degree in sports broadcast.
• E.C. Cantrell & The American Rugby House
A leader for the Met women’s rugby team who hails from Charlotte, North Carolina and lives with two other American rugby players on the Met men’s team.
• Funmi Oduwaiye
A para-athlete thrower who was destined to play Division 1 basketball in America, but after a routine surgery went wrong, is now chasing the 2024 Games in Paris.
• James Ledger
A visually-impaired sprinter is one of the fastest in Wales, ranking in the Top 5 in Europe in his events with a goal of the 2024 Games in Paris.
• Jade Atkin
A champion British Basketball Wheelchair athlete and member of Met’s wheelchair basketball team with a goal the 2024 Games in Paris.
• Lynn Davies
A Cardiff Met former track and field athlete who specialized in the long jump. He was the 1964 Olympic champion in the event.
Transatlantic Storytelling continues an on-going exchange of pedagogy, global sports production trends and virtual guest lectures and student connections.
In 2019, Ball State University and Cardiff Metropolitan University agreed to a five-year understanding which recognizes the mutual benefits of an educational partnership, which in part will lead to collaboration, opportunities, and faculty/student engagement.
