WNUR Sports Director Ben Goren explains how WNUR Sports has positively affected his Northwestern experience as part of WNUR’s Sportsathon. If you would like to contribute, click here and follow the instructions.

Before I sat down to write this, I actually looked back at the testimonial I wrote a few years ago for Sportsathon.  What struck me first was my overuse of parenthetical statements (which I’m working on fixing (oh, crap it’s happening again (help))).  But after that, it really brought a host of memories flooding back to my mind.

I do remember asking Michael Wilbon to be interviewed by two college kids and him saying yes.  I do remember celebratory ice cream with the women’s basketball team (a story I make sure to tell at every opportunity).  I remember meeting some of the coolest people I’ve ever known and the ridiculously fun times I’ve had with them.  I remember sleeping on the floor of the WNUR newsroom between shifts at last year’s Sportsathon.  I remember calling a football game from the freaking Big House.

Well that was just last week…

The point holds.

I think at one point or another, everyone wonders whether or not they made the right college decision.  When the wind whips over the lakefill in January, I know I certainly do.  But then I wait a few days, and I’ve got my face on the big board at Welsh-Ryan Arena interviewing Joe McKeown after a big win.  It’s an experience I can only get at Northwestern and an opportunity I can only get through WNUR Sports.  When someone asks me why I love Northwestern, there’s a really simple answer: where else would let me do all this crazy stuff?

Since I wrote that first testimonial, I’ve dipped my hands in a few different NU sports outlets.  I spent some time over at Lake The Posts (/pours some out).  I’ve tried my hand over at Inside NU writing hot taeks and generally goofing around in writing and on screen.  And it’s all been phenomenally cool and I’ve loved my time with all of those guys.  But WNUR is different.  WNUR lets me do everything.  I can write, I can podcast, I can run a show, I can get marketing experience, and, most importantly, I can pretend to be Jim Nantz for a few hours.  If you want to do it, you can do it at WNUR.

I’ve moved up the totem pole here from obnoxious freshman, to SportsVoice producer, and now I find myself, somehow, in charge of a staff of 30+ as Sports Director.  WNUR Sports has been my baby since last March and I’m incredibly happy with the strides we’ve made to make ourselves an even better station since then.  But the number of web hits or Twitter favorites we accumulate isn’t how I measure my success. 

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to help make the WNUR experience as incredible for every member of our staff as it has been for me.  I want everyone on our staff to walk away from their time at Northwestern and believe that their time with our station was one of the best parts of their college experience.  And so much of that depends on your donations.  The more trips we can go on, the more advanced our equipment, the better our facilities, the better we can make sure every one of our staffers can have a great time with us.

My 3 years here have been some of the best times of my life.  With your help, even more people can have even better experiences.

And ain’t that what college is really about?