Candace Parker has built something she says she wished someone had handed her: a paid way into sports media for students at historically Black colleges and universities, with help paying for a place to live while they do it.
The Candace Parker Sports and Media Fellowship, announced this week, will place current HBCU students in summer 2027 internships in Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta. It comes with housing assistance, mentorship and career development, and with introductions to people already working in the industry. Applications are open now to current HBCU students, and Parker has pointed them to the link in her Instagram bio.
The housing is the part that matters. The big sports and media employers sit in the most expensive cities in the country, and an internship that does not cover rent can only be taken by students whose families can. The program is meant to reduce those financial barriers, according to Black Enterprise’s account of the launch. For students at HBCUs, which enroll many first-generation and lower-income Black students, that is often the difference between a line on a résumé and no line at all.
Parker is a three-time WNBA champion who went from the court to the broadcast desk. “I’ve spent my whole career in sports, first on the court and now behind the mic, and I know what it means when someone opens the door for you,” she said.
She is partnering with EICOP, the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program, the organization that runs HBCU in LA. The pairing gives the fellowship an existing pipeline of HBCU students and industry contacts rather than starting from nothing.
Several details have not been published. The number of fellows, the pay and the application deadline were not in the announcement coverage. Students should ask before they plan around them, and the program should say.
Black athletes fill the courts and fields that sports networks sell. Far fewer Black people sit in the producer’s chair or behind the camera, and a fellowship run by someone who made that jump is a direct attempt to change who gets hired. The test comes next summer, when the first class shows up in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta and the pay and housing turn out to be what was promised.
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