Rob King, senior vice president of editorial, print and digital media at ESPN, kicked off Ole Miss’s first ever New Media Conference Thursday with advice to students as intelligent risk-takers.
“This time that you are going through right now is a very important time, and it matters,” King said. “Take this time to fully embrace who you are, and don’t let anybody tell you that who you are doesn’t matter.”
Arguably at the height of his career, King advised students in “the awful in-between years” to consider lessons he has encountered through life experience.
King encouraged students seeking employment opportunities to learn as much as possible before applying.
“In your world, there is no business you cannot find out about — all of the information is available to you,” he said. “Understand that.”
Having begun his professional career as a cartoonist, King expressed that life is more of a journey than merely a career chase.
King said students should take care to celebrate the opportunities of the present.
“Wherever you do go, mentally unpack and be where you are,” King said.
Highlighting the opportunities present at ESPN, King encouraged students to remember the power of wonder.
“The thing that ESPN gives the people that work there everyday is permission to have wonder,” King said.
Scott Fiene, assistant professor and the director of the undergraduate integrated marketing communications program, said he enjoyed King’s speech.
“It was very motivational,” Fiene said. “He said a lot of things that can apply to anyone – life lessons, opposed to specific things, were a great way to kick off the conference.”
Students in attendance agreed that they left feeling inspired by what they learned.
Sophomore broadcast journalism major Maggie Mitchell said she appreciated King’s advice for students.
“He was a really influential speaker in the way he related to the students,” Mitchell said. “I like how he told us to not pressure ourselves and to just focus on now.”
