UNLV student goes to work at Winter Olympics

Saturday, Feb. 7, 1998 | 10:08 a.m.

UNLV senior Sonny Minx is waking up a day ahead of the rest of us.

The 26-year-old communications major is in Nagano, Japan, working as a paid intern for the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Minx, one of 50 students selected by CBS to work at the Olympics, said that he was excited to be chosen.

"It's the biggest television event that I can think of. That in itself is pretty awesome," said Minx, who along with his duties at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) is also keeping in touch with broadcast students back at UNLV, via an interactive website.

Danny Mazzocco, professor of mass communication studies at UNLV, and veteran of eight previous Olympics, is also in Japan working as an associate director and producer in the IBC. Mazzocco has won four Emmys for his prior Olympic coverage. He said he is delighted to share this experience with one of the students.

Yet thanks to the information age, this experience can be directly shared with all of Mazzocco's students at UNLV.

"I wanted our work at the Olympics to be a valuable experience, not only for Sonny and myself, but also for my other communications students. I'm hoping the website will provide them with the opportunity to learn about what goes into broadcasting such a major event," Mazzocco said.

Minx has been assigned to the International Broadcast Center working with the management information systems (MIS) group of CBS Sports Asia. He said that the Internet access is extremely limited, but that his assigned area with MIS allows him more access. He sends an e-mail every day to friends, family, and UNLV faculty giving a daily recap of what he's doing.

Three roommates from Australia, a transportation pass for the famous Shinkansen Bullet train, and "FREEEZING!!" weather are just a few things included in Minx's e-mails from his first week in Japan.

Of course, any winter weather can be freezing to a Las Vegan. Minx however, has been keeping warm ever since he received his color coordinated, hierarchy winter clothing supplied by CBS.

"Everyone here received a clothing package," said Minx in a Feb. 3 e-mail. Among the winter items Minx received in a large Nike bag were ski pants, a ski jacket, a fleece/liner, fleece hat, headband, earmuffs, gloves and boots.

Minx hopes to attend some of the sporting events as a spectator, by winning tickets through an employee lottery.

Also in his e-mails, Minx has been describing his responsibilities and assignments such as installing computers and printers. He was recently in charge of ensuring that the computers and printers to write the scripts for the opening ceremonies were functional.

Minx said that everything he learned in the Hank Greenspun School of Communications can be applied to his work in Nagano. He's not exactly sure why he was chosen by CBS, but attributes it to his diverse job history, prior courses of study and his previous world travels. He is hoping that his experience will allow him to help other students who wish to gain a broadcast internship.

He'll be returning to Las Vegas on Feb. 25 and returning to school the following day.