Bison Life: Andrew Young

Never give up on your dreams. Andrew Young, a senior majoring in broadcasting and management communications student here at NDSU is driven to someday see his dreams of working on the national media stage come true. This dream of his was able to take flight over the past three months, as Young landed an internship with the 47th annual American Country Music Awards in Los Angeles.

Young experienced a lot while interning with the ACM’s, and was able to make valuable connections and gain top-notch experience that will help propel him even closer to his dream after graduation.

Young gives much of the credit for his success in interning with the ACM’s to NDSU.

“NDSU prepared me to work in the media industry. It enabled me to not only step into the roll to work and learn, but also provided a lot of hands on experience and experiential work,” Young stated about how classes at NDSU assisted him at the ACM’s.

Notably, Young also ties in success to his work as the General Manager of the BIN network at NDSU.

“My work editing video, producing video and working with television and news at BIN is very professional,” Young shared.

He says he saw that a lot of the work done at BIN was the same as the work that was being done on the set of the ACM’s.

According to Young, he took the experience he gained at NDSU and BIN and moved to Los Angeles where a whole new world of media production would open up his eyes to realize that so much more is out there working in a national industry like the ACM’s.

Within two weeks of attaining the internship, Young was called on to do a one-on-one interview with country music star Taylor Swift. Young says he was amazed that the job moved so fast, and that so much was expected of him within the first few weeks of the job. However, knowing that his work was good enough initially helped him better fulfill all of the other experiences.

The experiences were all valuable for Young. A very huge moment for him was doing an interview with Drew Carrey, right on the set of the show “The Price is Right”.

“It was a surreal moment for me. This is a show that everybody has watched and knows about,” Young said.

Young also did an interview with the country group Montgomery Gentry, and was able to go trap shooting event hosted by Blake Shelton.

Young also had a couple of mentors that took him under their wing. Lisa Lee, the vice president of production taught Young in what he says are a lot of valuable things about the industry. He mentions that the best thing about Lee was that she was not biased on entertainment and news.

Young coined Bob Romeo, the president of the ACM industry as the smartest man he worked with. Romeo was an effective motivator and was also a very direct and powerful leader that played the role of “father” for Young because he taught him so much.

NDSU students can learn a lot from Young’s experience at the ACM’s. He hopes to inspire students to believe in their dreams and to never give up.

“Set your dreams high. When it comes to a job, never say never. Never tell yourself that you can’t get it because that is not true,” Young shared compassionately. “If nothing else, I always tell people to try it because they have nothing to lose. From there people can begin setting their goals.”

Young also hopes to promote the idea of NDSU preparing students to work in a national industry, rather than only choosing to work for a local industry. Young strongly feels that NDSU empowers students to believe in their dreams and prepares students to work anywhere.

The internship with the ACM’s gave Young exactly what he wanted, the opportunity for valuable experience. He now has experience working in news and entertainment including having the opportunity to intern for “ABC World News” with Diane Sawyer. Young feels that the entertainment industry is better, but wants to finish out college and enjoy that experience before making any decisions on his future.

Young inspires us all to believe in our dreams because they can come true. Take his advice and just give it a try because there is nothing to lose, yet so much to gain.