Student spotlight: Samantha Finglass on marketing CMT’s Making The Team
Samantha Finglass '20 grew up in the world of the Dallas Cowboys and is no stranger to being part of a team that feels like family. She interned this summer for the CMT television show, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, and shared with us how College of Liberal Arts helped her step into this new role feeling well prepared.
By Alix Poth ’18
Samantha Finglass ’20 is no stranger to being part of a team that feels more like a family. Her mom, Kelli Finglass, is the director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and her dad, Joel Finglass worked for the business operations of the team. She grew up watching marketing happen through storytelling.
Samantha Finglass ’20
This summer, Finglass interned for the CMT television show, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, and became the family member who updates everyone on social media; and Texas A&M College of Liberal Arts was able to help her to step into this new role feeling well prepared.
Finglass worked as the show’s social media producer, a new position serving as the liaison between the parent company ViaCom in New York City and MTV, who shares media content for the CMT show. Her job was content creation — gathering the life, tips, and tricks from behind the scenes of one of the most famous NFL cheerleading teams. She collected material for content and sent it to media teams in NYC, who then packaged it for social media platforms.
“Working in social media content marketing was a really positive experience for me,” Finglass said. “It was a lot of learning to understand the audience of social media, and I gained a professional footing from this job.”
The internship provided practical experience in digital marketing, which was something her telecommunication media studies major prepared her well for. She said her professors have always led discussion-based classes and challenged her to think critically, which helped tremendously in social media monitoring.
“I had to listen to the audience and the communities that were already online, and listen to what was doing well,” she said. “The goal was to capture the lives of the cheerleaders — things the TV wasn’t capturing — and learn how to make the same content different and exciting and new.”
Her time at Texas A&M provided her with simple yet crucial skills, like being able to listen and see things from others’ point of view. She also said courses in the liberal arts refined her ability to communicate clearly and professionally. Having to work with a remote team was challenging, Finglass said, and her ability to communicate effectively in writing via email well went a long way.
DCC Making the Team shows on CMT Friday at 9/8C. Photo: CMT Press
“The liberal arts gave me a common sense that helped so much with digital marketing, like knowing how to research a topic or being able to see things differently to relate to the audience,” Finglass said.
Finglass may have been introduced to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders family by her family, but throughout her internship she worked hard to earn her place on the team. She credits her time at Texas A&M with fostering her initiative to reach out and pursue the position, and with providing the things she employed in her role. With an interest in Texas athletics, she hopes to pursue a career in digital media. She knows her internship experience will be beneficial throughout her career.
“You have to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, even in tasks that seem unusual to gain an understanding of how things work,” she said. “Even here on campus, you can use the spheres you’re in — your classes, your own social media, your organizations — to learn and gain skills on your own.”
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