Daelyn Waters started her professional journey in a television production class at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. At the same time, Daelyn honed her professional and leadership skills as a PeerForward Peer Leader.  

“In my family, college was an expectation,” explained Daelyn, who served as a Peer Leader during her junior and senior years. She felt motivated by sharing that thought process with other people and helping them see how much a college degree gives you for life. “It was very encouraging to know that you just needed to reach one person, because that person will go on to reach others too. Your impact extends far beyond that initial person that you talk to.”  

Daelyn went on to attend Georgetown University, where she secured a position at Georgetown Athletics. Shortly after graduating, she continued her trajectory, taking roles with the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Wizards. Now, she is a producer and editor for NBC Sports Boston. She spoke with us about her career journey and how her time as a Peer Leader set her up for success: 

Tell us more about the career path you’ve chosen. How did you end up in your current position of producer and editor for NBC Sports Boston? 

My junior year of college, I was interning with Georgetown Athletics, but also was fortunate enough to get an internship with the Washington Wizards. That was like a dream come true as they were the professional basketball team that I grew up watching and rooting for. I spent a lot of time at Capital One Arena, just covering all the Wizards’ games there. As a part of their digital media team, I learned firsthand how to work in a very fast paced environment. Actually being there in person to learn how to use their top-of-the-line Sony cameras and edit things in real time was such an incredible experience. They even extended my internship beyond that one season into the off season.  

When I first graduated from college, I had no idea where I was going next or what I wanted to do. There was a long period after graduation where I was researching and applying and trying, but nothing was working out. Everything up to that point in my life had been structured, and it felt like I was no longer part of that structure. It marked a significant period of growth for me because I had to learn how to let go of control and just be in the moment. At the end of that year, one of my supervisors from the Wizards internship reached out to me. He told me that they had a position open up as an associate producer and editor, but it was only part-time. It’s wasn’t full time like I would want, but it was a way for me to get my foot back in that door. So, I accepted the role, and I was able to work alongside the team at Monumental Sports and Entertainment who I was working with before. The only caveat was that it didn’t allow me to do the video shooting I was doing before. I was just editing and organizing all the footage, which was still great. However, I knew that for my 1st full-time opportunity, I was going to want a position where I could do both editing and shooting. Eventually, they had an opening for a full-time position in the venues marketing department as a coordinator. That role entailed promoting and marketing all of the concerts and events that were happening at their venues. I interviewed for that job, and was able to secure the position. 

At first, I was very happy. It was great for me to be able to stay on with my Monumental Sports and Entertainment family. It was also fun because I got to do so much of the production and editing to advertise our shows and events. The challenge in that role stemmed from the fact that it was a very small team. I was the only one in our group that knew how to do what I did. Nobody else on the team produced, none of them shot, none of them edited. Unfortunately, it got to a point where there was so much responsibility and weight put on my shoulders that I felt myself suffering mentally as a result. I opted to take care of my well-being and leave the job. Then I was back to square one. The whole cycle repeated of me applying for jobs, not hearing back, not getting interviews, and it was kind of like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? 

I absent-mindedly applied to the producer and editor role for NBC Sports Boston on LinkedIn using Easy Apply. Everybody knows that that’s rare for you to hear back from jobs that use Easy Apply, because the ease at which you can apply attracts a large pool of applicants. Then, maybe a week or 2 later, I heard from the recruiter! He said they had just finished interviews, but after they saw my resume and LinkedIn profile, they wanted to interview me as well. After a few rounds of digital interviews, they flew me to Boston to do an in-person interview in person and let me see the station. It was amazing. It is a huge news station with top-of-the-line equipment and all these screens and studios everywhere. Previously, my experience was with teams. I hadn’t been at a station before where I could cover multiple teams and sports. In the end, I got offered the position. That’s truly how I ended up in this role, from just a leap of faith. I went from having all these trials and tribulations in a season full of “no’s” to being offered this amazing opportunity. I remember thinking to myself “I guess I’m going to move to Massachusetts!” 

When did you know you were a leader? 

I think leadership was installed in me at a very young age. However, I was never able to put a title to it until I discovered PeerForward as a junior. It was always in me, I just didn’t an official title or role where I was designated as a leader. So, I have PeerForward to thank for that! The program gave me the opportunity to walk in everything that I had learned up to that point and helped me to be confident in that position. It also provided me a space where I could communicate with and help my peers. I feel they were more receptive to what I said and the instructions I gave to them than they would have been if I were not one of their peers. I’m seeing that now at 24, mentoring people who are still in school at Georgetown. They’re looking at my role and my journey, and they see themselves in me to an extent because I’m not that far removed from where they are. It’s awesome that I get to be that person for other people who are younger than I am. But, I was able to do that when I was also on the same playing field as those I worked with starting back in high school when I was a Peer Leader. 

Do you think students need programs like PeerForward? If so, why? 

Oh, yes, of course! Like I mentioned before, PeerForward provided me with my 1st official role as a “leader.” Even though leadership was innate in me, being able to be in that position helped me to see more of the foundation that was already instilled in me. It also made me feel empowered in knowing that I was trusted with this responsibility because others had seen it in me as well. Sometimes, all you need is a little acknowledgment to feel appreciated. Not that you’re living off of people’s appreciation of you, but that you need people to see things within you that you don’t even see in yourself. It truly helped me, in my journey, to feel more confident and empowered, especially in a role I’m in now. There are not a lot of people who look like me in these positions, and I want to see more of me! I want to see more representation. If I didn’t have PeerForward as my foundation, only God knows if I would have made it this far. I needed to have that support system. It has helped me to withstand all the responsibility that I have right now in spaces that might not have necessarily been designed for me. I’m able to be confident in the rooms that I step into, because I know I was put in them for a reason.