Bridget Javitch, a libero for American University's volleyball team for the past four years, has brought her talents to the NCAA as one of 34 members of its 2025-26 Postgraduate Internship Program. After earning her bachelor’s degree in communications from American in May, Javitch began the year-long internship at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis in mid-June.

When she committed to American in the spring of her junior year of high school, Javitch was unsure what she wanted to study. She drew inspiration from her sister, Megan, who had studied communications at Villanova. “She is a really big role model for how I see my career developing,” she said. “I knew that I was very good in the digital space, and I knew that I had a passion for videography. [And] social media just felt natural for me.”

Once it was time to apply to American in her senior year, Javitch knew she would follow in her sister’s footsteps and study communications — and added a minor in business and entertainment. She enjoyed the balance of being a digital creator while learning the fundamentals of running a business. She didn’t take many sports-related courses, but explored sports marketing through her minor.

A summer internship as a personal videographer for Arielle Houlihan, a volleyball content creator, would change Javitch’s trajectory, inspiring her to focus on sports. “While working for her I was able to record and edit videos for her and her players and I had so much fun doing it,” she said. “I could picture myself doing it for a long time at a higher level, and just being in the quick-paced environment made me really excited to keep doing it.”

Her love of videography and her passion for sports were a natural combination, she said. “I have a good eye for making sports content because that’s all of the content I consume, and that’s the world that I put myself in. And I think sitting courtside and making edits is peak happiness, the coolest thing I could do.”

But in the fall of 2024, her main focus was volleyball, not job applications. “I was in the height of my season,” she said. “It was so out of sight, out of mind.”

She didn’t even know about the NCAA Postgraduate Internship Program until the day before the application was due. Kylann Scheidt, a former player on the AU volleyball team that made it to the Sweet 16 in 2013, now acts as the Associate Director of Communications for Video and Creative Services for the NCAA.

“She posted something on her Instagram at the NCAA headquarters, and I kind of jokingly slid up and said, ‘Wow, you’re really out here living my dream,’” Javitch said. “And she DMed me saying, ‘Wait, we have this really cool opportunity you should apply for.’ And she sent it to me the day before applications closed.”

The last day the NCAA was accepting applications — September 6 — was game day for the Eagles, who were set to match up against Hampton at 5 p.m. In the locker room, with less than an hour before the game and her teammates dancing and cheering all around her, Javitch was on her laptop writing her cover letter.

Soon after applying, she had a short Zoom interview. And a couple weeks later, she received another email — inviting her to come to Indianapolis for an in-person second round interview.

“I was like, ‘Since when was there a second round?’” she said, laughing. “But I was screaming.”

In November, while balancing midterms and games, Javitch was also tasked with preparing a video to present as a part of her interview, which had been assigned to her a week in advance. “I sat in the library every day that week for hours, working on midterms and working on that video.”

She flew from DC to Indianapolis for less than a day and a half. She didn’t enjoy missing practice, but her coaches and teammates overflowed with support. “I am very thankful that my coaching staff let me come and do this,” she said. “Everybody texted me good luck… They made me feel like this is something that I needed to do and they could hold the fort down while I was gone. It really relieved my interview process knowing that everything back in DC was fine.”

After arriving on a Monday evening and having dinner with the other candidates, Tuesday was filled with intensity: 7:15 a.m. start, back-to-back interviews, tours of the NCAA headquarters and Hall of Champions, and the dreaded presentation of her video. But aside from the nerves, she could picture herself working and thriving there.

“When I flew out here for the in-person interview, I was kind of in the mindset of, ‘It’s okay if you don’t get it — you’re here, you’re doing your best, life will move on,’” she said. “But when I got into the building, I was like, ‘I want this so bad.’”

Her competitive spirit was certainly part of that thought process, but meeting the people she’d be working with made the real difference.

Two days after the volleyball season ended, in late November, Javitch was alone in the locker room and received a phone call from an unknown number. “I had this gut feeling,” she said. “So I picked it up and they said, ‘We want to offer you —’ And I did not let them finish the sentence. I said, ‘I accept! I accept! I will take it!’”

Javitch moved to Indianapolis in early June and started the internship less than two weeks later. In her short time there so far, she’s created social media posts, written content, videos, and graphics for all of the NCAA’s platforms and all three divisions. A highlight of Javitch’s first two months: creating content for the ESPYs in July.

“We worked an entire month on building graphics, writing copy for every category and every possible person in that category that could win,” she said. “I think I wrote over 300 Instagram captions for 11 people to win. And that was my first event where I was doing live coverage.”

The internship is only a year long, but, Javitch said, there are endless opportunities to learn — including covering March Madness, which takes place in Indianapolis for all three men’s divisions this year. “There are just so many opportunities at the national office for me to help out,” she said. “I am so invested in what I’ve been doing here. I’ve just been a sponge absorbing everything.”

As one of 26 former student-athletes in the 34-person internship cohort, Javitch is taking the lessons she learned in sports to the office. “I want to work in a team setting… and I love constructive criticism,” she said. “I think the culture of being an athlete is that you do [things] for others.”

And her coworkers have that attitude as well, Javitch said. “A big part of my every day is the people that I work with,” she said. “And I feel so incredibly blessed to be in communications here at NCAA and on my specific digital and creative team… I think it’s going to make looking for my next job so much harder because they’ve just made it so incredible coming here.”