Penn State students partner with The Associated Press to cover FIFA World Cup

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Some teams plan years for a potential World Cup opportunity, and so do some Penn State students.

“When I came to Penn State, I came knowing there was a connection and history of students getting to cover major sporting events. So, it was almost a three-year plan to put myself in position for something like this,” said Owen Cameros, a rising senior journalism and economics double major from Seattle.

Cameros and 14 other Penn State students will be covering the 2026 FIFA World Cup during June and July as part of a partnership with The Associated Press. The students, many a part of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, housed in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, will be working from locations in New Jersey and Toronto throughout the five-week international event.

The students’ work begins this week in Toronto, and the tournament concludes with the World Cup Final on July 19 in New Jersey.

Cameros will spend two separate weeks in Toronto (sandwiched around a week at home in Seattle where he’ll be assisting with World Cup coverage there), and several other students will cycle in and out of the city to help with coverage as the tournament progresses. Six World Cup games are being played in the Toronto, including the first ever for Canada in its home country.

“There has been so much to prepare for, and so many story ideas. There’s been a massive stadium renovation in Toronto, and everything at and around the games has potential,” Cameros said. “I have color-coded charts based on my research and all kinds of files and notes. Basically, I’m headed there with my backpack, charger and a big smile on my face because of the chance to do this.”

Along with the World Cup, his largely soccer-focused summer includes a role as play-by-play commentator/media intern for the West Seattle Junction FC, a soccer team that competes in USL League Two.

While he and most other Penn State students will spend only a portion of the tournament in Toronto, two students will be there for the entire month.

Rising seniors Lexie Linderman, from Ashburn, Virginia, and Kassandra Vasellas, from York, Pennsylvania, moved to the hotel that will serve as their home base this week and will remain there until July 3. Linderman’s duties are more writing focused while Vasellas will focus on video.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Linderman said. “It’ll be my first time visiting Canada, and it’s such a big event with so much going on there will be a lot to do. For me, staying organized will be important in terms of getting everything done.”

She’ll also balance a remote summer internship, continue her duties as football editor of The Daily Collegian, and get accustomed to living out of a hotel room for a month.

At least the hotel adaptation will be a shared experience.

Vasellas, who traveled with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to cover a Steelers game in Ireland last fall, has embraced the many potential opportunities of the World Cup assignment. All of the students have met regularly together and with Associated Press partners to plan and prepare. In addition, she said her Penn State classes provided a strong foundation for what she and the other students are being asked to do.

“It’ll be more short-form video, short little features, maybe from a rally or a watch party, and we’ve looked at a lot of AP videos so we know they’re style,” Vasellas said. “As a result, I’ve gotten stronger with what I create and edit. My experience in classes like COMM 260 and COMM 360 helped a lot, too. You have to go up and meet people and talk to them in these situations — that’s not something I would’ve been able or comfortable doing before coming to Penn State.”

After her World Cup duties, she’ll return to campus in July and work as as counselor for some Bellisario College summer camps.

Bronwyn Liber, a former camp participant and now a rising senior, will work in Toronto as well. Like her classmates, it makes for a busy summer. She’ll be on site in Toronto for 10 days from June 17-27. She also has an internship with WKRC-TV in Cincinnati this summer.

A journalism major from Posper, Texas, her duties are more video-related as well.

“It’s kind of everything around the games — changes for local residents, clothing, the environment, food, ticket prices,” she said. “It’s just a wide range of short-form content, and we’ll be working closely with the writers to complement their work as well. It’s a unique opportunity to look at things through a different lens.”

John Affleck, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center, takes pride in the partnership as well. A longtime Associated Press editor before joining Penn State, students have benefited from similar Curley Center partnerships with regularity. For example, students have covered international NFL games, the NFL Draft, the Paralympics and the Little League World Series.

“The quality of our students and the changing landscape of sports journalism have made these partnerships perfect for all involved,” Affleck said. “In this case, our students’ work will get seen by people all over the world, because it’ll be featured by the world’s most important news organization, and the Associated Press will get high-quality content from talented young journalists.”

Penn State’s efforts for the World Cup are not exclusively focused on Toronto, either.

Three of the 15 students helping with the partnership will produce video content from New Jersey and Philadelphia during the tournament.

Danny Jamer, a rising junior advertising/public relations major from Mendham, New Jersey, has a summer internship as a graphic designer with the New York Post this summer. Along with that, he’ll help provide video coverage of things in and around New York City and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where eight World Cup games, including the final, will be contested.

Again, it’s a bit more about the activities surrounding the event than the games themselves, and that provides an abundance of opportunity and variety. Unlike some students involved in the World Cup effort, Jamer is not focused on sports for his eventual career goal, but the major international event offers a way to broaden his experience and skill set.

He knows it’s important — even if it means some hectic days balancing his internship duties and alters his typical summer plans.

“I usually like going down to the shore and having a relaxing summer,” Jamer said, “but this is something so special I just had to commit to make it work.”