Josh Norris '11 and his father, Robert, have created an endowment to provide scholarship assistance to make internships possible for students in Elon's School of Communications.
Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Josh Norris ’11 didn’t listen to music on the radio. He tuned in to sports talk, with special interest in the NFL. It was a passion.
“I’m sure my parents sat up at night thinking that my older brother was going to be a lawyer, but Josh just likes football. What’s he going to do?” Norris recalls between projects as a creative contributor for Underdog Fantasy, a sports gaming company. He is also host of “The Underdog Football Show,” a popular podcast on the company’s website. Norris made national news earlier this year by sporting the highest success rate of any NFL analyst forecasting the first round of the NFL draft.
Norris can trace his achievements to his own determination and opportunities available at Elon. He credits access to Elon Experiences like internships as crucial to his career path. It’s the reason he joined his father, Robert, in making a generous gift to the Elon LEADS Campaign to endow the Norris Family Communications Internship Award, which will provide scholarship assistance to make internships possible for students in the School of Communications.
Your impact: A minimum gift of $50,000, paid over five years, will establish an Elon Experiences endowment to support internships, global study, undergraduate research, service learning or leadership opportunities for students — a priority of the Elon LEADS Campaign. For more information, contact Brian Baker, associate vice president for university advancement, at 336-278-7453 or bbaker7@elon.edu.
Norris, who earned his degree in media arts and entertainment, completed three internships while at Elon. The final one “set the trajectory for my entire career,” he says. Through the internship office in the School of Communications, Norris learned about a position available for an Elon student in the scouting department with the then-St. Louis Rams NFL team, whose general manager at the time was former Elon football player Bill Devaney ’78. “I thought, ‘This is my dream.’ My entire life I wanted to work for an NFL team projecting college prospects,” Norris says.
He got the internship, then worked at training camp for the Rams in Earth City, Missouri. After he returned to Elon, he was invited back to be in the Rams’ draft room the next spring. People he met there helped him land his first job as an NFL draft writer with Rotoworld, part of NBC Sports. Norris says all three of his internships, including one in Los Angeles, were unpaid and would not have been possible without financial support from his parents. “My parents have been really supportive in everything I’ve done,” he says. “As I got older, I realized how privileged I am.”
Providing scholarships to make dream internships possible for students with financial need was a driving factor in creating the endowment, Norris says. “I would hate for someone to land an amazing internship in New York, and they couldn’t take it because they couldn’t afford the cost of travel or rent or food,” he says. “I wanted to help someone achieve their dreams.”
Learn more about “Theme 4: Rise” of the Boldly Elon strategic plan.