Frank Bonner, a ’20 graduate of the Sports Journalism Master’s program at IUPUI, recently celebrated a year of employment at his job as an Oklahoma State University beat writer for Tulsa World.
“Covering college or professional sports has been my dream since high school,” Bonner said. “My job is to cover all things OSU.”
He focuses on football and basketball. Football is the dominant sport in his market.
Bonner enjoys interacting with Oklahoma State fans through social media. For example, he reached out to fans and asked them to rank their top three favorite OSU football moments. He then took all the submissions and wrote an article on the top five fan favorites.
“It was a fun way to interact with them and to dive into some Oklahoma State football history,” Bonner said.
Moving away from home and family for the first time can be tough, but Bonner is adjusting just fine.
“Tulsa is a beautiful city and the people here have welcomed me with open arms,” he said.
Bonner credits some of his success to the sports journalism program at IUPUI. He said that the skills he learned in classes and through covering games with the Sports Capital Journalism Program are the skills he needed in his new job. As a student, he had many opportunities to cover major events and that helped boost his confidence in believing that he could handle a job of this caliber.
“We spent a lot of time covering game stories on an intense deadline and that’s exactly what I have been doing in this job,” Bonner said. “The classes prepared me well.”