Students are organizing a new student chapter of the Associated Press Sports Editors at Boston University, advised by journalism professor Sherrod Blakely, in an effort to create more networking opportunities for aspiring sports journalists.

Although the chapter is still pending approval from the Student Activities Office, APSE BU held their first unofficial introductory meeting on Tuesday night with 17 people in attendance, including Blakely.

“My role is just to answer any APSE big picture questions and provide pizza,” Blakely said.

APSE consists of around 400 sports editors, writers, students and journalism educators nationwide and boasts “access to sports journalism leaders at top newspapers and websites,” according to their website.

“The thing that APSE does more than anything else is it gets you on the treadmill of working in the industry,” said Blakely, who also serves as the chair of the APSE Diversity Committee.

Typically, students involved with APSE chapters go on to be reporters, even working up to newsrooms like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, Blakely said. 

The APSE student chapter at BU will offer scholarships, mentorship and access to a national conference, but also connect member students with industry professionals. 

“The biggest thing that when talking with the students who are going to be leading the way is the ability to network,” Blakely said. “It’s something that in the sports journalism space we don’t necessarily do as great a job as I think we can at BU.” 

Inaugural president of the chapter, Stevie Potter, sees the need for more networking at BU as well but understands it’s not a BU-specific need. 

“It’s also going to be the only chapter, not even in the Boston area, but in New England,” said Potter, a junior in the College of Communication. “So most of the schools around here don’t have access to that sort of networking.” 

APSE BU hopes to expand their reach beyond the BU community, extending invitations to journalism students at schools throughout Boston.

“Not only is it really cool that APSE will offer that at a larger scale, but then we get to share that with the other universities in the area,” Potter said. “Which is not only a kind thing, but we get to show off a little bit.” 

Another key element of the chapter of networking with fellow students and not just industry professionals. 

Potter’s current boss at her internship with the South Carolina Stingrays is a recent BU graduate.

“He was the director of WTBU last year,” Potter said. “So he was always showing me the ropes from the time I was a freshman here. Now that he’s out of school with a real, big, cool, adult job, he’s still helping me out.” 

Blakely also spoke about the access connections with peers will bring to students down the line Tuesday night. 

“They’re understanding the importance of thinking about tomorrow, today,” Blakely said about the student group leading the new chapter. 

One of those leaders is Lydia Murray, a junior in the College of Communication, who is the secretary for BU’s APSE chapter. She got involved with the organization after taking Blakely’s journalism classes.  

“It’s a lot of fun to be working with him outside of class,”Murray said. “He’s a great mentor to have in any capacity so I’m excited to work with him more and get to see what we can do with this chapter.”