A journey to remember

In exactly one week I will be embarking on one of the most exciting experiences of any American sports fan, Super Bowl XLVI. I will be volunteering with the Super Bowl public relations staff and I am anxiously waiting to find out my assignments while getting thrown into working at the most fast-paced sporting event of the year!

While I have absolutely no idea what to expect during this journey I am so lucky to know another Penn State alum, Becky Murdy, who worked with the Public Relations staff last year and will be returning for another Super Bowl experience in Indianapolis! I must admit as soon as I found out about this extraordinary opportunity millions of thoughts and questions flooded my head. I was excited, happy, nervous and kind of freaking out (in a good way) all at the same time. While I was one of the last volunteers to find out about this amazing opportunity I began scrambling on who I would stay with because everyone was already roomed together! However, I haven't even gotten there yet and the people working with the Public Relations staff have been absolutely amazing and helpful in every way imaginable. Within 48 hours I was taken under the wings of recent Penn State alum Becky Murdy and the volunteers she worked with last year. I will be driving to Indianapolis with another Penn State alum, Kait Sawyer, who also worked last year! (Looks like Penn Staters are taking over the Super Bowl and the sports world!) Leave it to Penn State alumni to help each other out in times of need, thank you!

While it has been an extremely rough year for Penn Staters everywhere recent events have proven to me that there is really no closer community than the Penn State community. In a group of 40,000+ students and over 100,000+ alumni I have never felt closer to such an amazing group of people. We have stood by each other in the toughest year that Penn State has seen and will continue to do so in the future. If it wasn't for my experience here and my work with the Penn State Athletics Department I would not be where I am today.

So, what specifically is there to look forward to in the host city this year?

• Indianapolis is home to some of the biggest sporting events of the year including the Indy 500, Big Ten and Final Four tournaments. The Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament will be held here in March! (They're custom to hosting big sporting events and I do not anticipate anything less than extraordinary by this years' host committees) 
• The NFL Experience held during the 10 days prior to Super Bowl Sunday
• To all fans attending that lack tickets, media day will be open to the public for the first time in NFL history! 
• Tennis celebrities Pete Sampras and Todd Martin will participate in a charity tennis match named "Match for a Cure" 
• Musical events by singers such as LMFAO, O.A.R., Darius Rucker, Hunter Smith Band and Jon McLaughlin