My name is Andrew Matyasik, and I am currently a senior attending Cicero-North Syracuse High School. Next year I will be attending S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a major in Broadcast Digital Journalism. I plan to become a professional sports broadcaster with either the sport of ice hockey or baseball with this major, while also participating in Newhouse's political journalism sector during school. Ever since I was a kid, I always knew that I wanted to be on television, whether it was on CNN or FOX Sports.

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While I haven't regularly volunteered with one specific charitable organization, I have been able to volunteer my time doing several different things. Every weekend, I have volunteered to help the Syracuse Crunch's equipment staff when they don't have the help they need to operate fast and efficiently. I have also been able to help teach younger kids how to skate and play hockey, and sharing my passion for the sport along with the younger generation. Along with this, I have also ben able to go out to practices for younger kids as well, and help the coaches run drills, and teach the kids the proper ways to skate, shoot, and stickhandle to improve their skills. 

 

One of the biggest problems that I faced was a speech impediment throughout elementary school that I eventually overcame through a lot of speech therapy. Not only do I love to broadcast, but I love to play sports too. I love to play golf, ice hockey, and tennis with my friends, and one of my favorite things to do on the weekends is to officiate ice hockey. The relationships that I have made with people through playing and reffing hockey are ones that will be with me for the rest of my life. Throughout high school, I broadcast athletic events on the Northstar Network, during the fall, winter, and spring athletic seasons. We broadcast every game on iMacs and MacBooks, the two computers that I have grown up my entire life operating.

 

Going to my grandparents house on the weekend, my grandpa Roy would help me with the iMac, teach me how to work it, and would even let me download my favorite games to play on it. At home, my mom would let me use her laptop to play games, and do my school projects before the age of chrome books existed. As I got to the high school, I utilized the iMacs in my Media Communications class everyday that were donated to us by the Keith Fengler Foundation. Macs have been the computer that I have used and mastered throughout my years of school, and will be the computer that I use while studying at Newhouse. 

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I hope you enjoyed the project that I made. I have loved the entire process of creating this, as it allowed me to take something extremely negative that happened in my life and turn it into a positive, and I have enjoyed every second of creating this. I would also like to thank the Fengler family for this opportunity, as this project has now inspired me to get more involved in charities close to my heart.