Missouri School of Journalism’s China Open program offers students unforgettable experience at global sporting event
From left: Luca Giordano, Connor Greene, Josie Childers, Rebecca Jackson, Mia Fleischer, Coby Spratte, Evan Kohn and Dane Vogel visit the Forbidden City, Beijing’s famous royal complex.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Nov. 6, 2025) — Watching the best tennis players in the world go head-to-head; attending post-match press conferences and interviewing the athletes one-on-one; filing stories about the matches on deadline; facilitating those interviews and press conferences from behind the scenes.
These are the experiences of professional journalists and strategic communicators who follow legendary athletes as they compete all over the world. But for two weeks in Beijing, students from the Missouri School of Journalism stepped into those roles and more at the China Open tennis tournament.
“The China Open is a remarkable opportunity to apply the Missouri Method of learning by doing on an international scale,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “The depth and breadth of experiences available to students, regardless of which discipline they are interested in, provides a strong grounding in professional-level work that can only serve them well going forward.
As it has since the program began in 2009, the China Open experience featured access to many of the top-rated men and women in professional tennis. Student reporters were assigned to follow individual athletes as they progressed through the tournament and were often able to interview them one-on-one for their stories.
“Students would go cover a tennis match, come back and get feedback on that story and then go do it again and again,” said Reuben Stern, director of the School’s New York Program, who served as the faculty editor overseeing the students’ work in Beijing this year. “Those reps at writing about a sporting event made them faster, made them better and made them more comfortable.”
Organized by Director of China Programs Ernest Y. Zhang and International Programs Assistant Li Yang, the program immersed students in a new culture with visits to the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City — along with a traditional Chinese dinner featuring the famed Peking Duck — while also introducing them to a workflow that had them living and breathing tennis reporting.
“From pretty much 11 to 11 all day, we would be watching tennis, taking notes, writing, staying engaged in the matches,” said senior Coby Spratte, who spent the summer beforehand in the School’s London program as an international marketing intern for London Rangers F.C., a soccer club.
In Beijing, Spratte spent his time writing news articles mostly focused on the day’s tennis action. For example, he followed 19-year-old Learner Tien through the tournament, charting Tien’s path to becoming the first American to reach the men’s final since 2008. But the experience also included reporting off the court.
“The evening before the tournament started, there was the player gala in Beijing,” Spratte said. “I got to go put on a button-down and tie and walk around taking notes. There was a traditional Chinese garden, music and a bunch of different things. It was kind of a breathtaking moment where I got to write a fluffier event story about the ‘Oscars of Beijing’ and just enjoy the evening among the greatest tennis players in the world.”
Spratte hopes to become a sports journalist, and he isn’t alone. Fellow senior Dane Vogel said the experience solidified his vision for a future career.
“I definitely want to work in sports, especially after this,” Vogel said. “It was a blast.”
The China Open was Vogel’s first time traveling outside the U.S., and it was also his first major exposure to tennis as someone who extensively follows basketball, football and hockey.
“I got to understand what the players were doing, why they were doing it and how different players might match up against each other. By the end, I felt like I really understood tennis.”
All students also received instruction about the sport and Chinese culture in the form of a class that ran for a month before the participants arrived in China. They heard from School of Journalism alumni like Toni Woods, BJ ’87, the director of media relations at HolterMedia, and from tennis reporting authorities like Howard Fendrich, a national writer at The Associated Press and co-president of the International Tennis Writers’ Association. They also attended a Mizzou tennis team practice and learned about what to expect from daily life in China.
Then, upon arriving in Beijing, they attended a crash course in culture at the International Communication University of China (ICUC).
Reporting was not the only type of hands-on experience students were able to take part in. Senior Evan Kohn guided athletes to and from daily press conferences and interviews, giving him a front-row seat to media events involving everyone from his fellow students to national and international media.
“I was basically a player liaison — I made sure the players were going to their various media appearances and made sure the media outlets were ready for them,” Kohn said. “I got to work with a lot of the best players and got to know a few of them pretty well.”
Like many of the other participants, Kohn hopes to eventually find a career in sports. After earning his bachelor’s degree from the School, he plans to enter law school and ultimately combine the two disciplines in a dream job as an executive or general counsel for a sports organization.
To that end, he found that the Missouri Method of learning by doing in China helped him become more adaptable.
“Having to deal with things as they come — that was probably the most valuable part,” Kohn said. “And when there was a relaxed moment, I got to pick the brains of some people who were much older than me. I feel like talking with a lady from London, a guy from South Carolina and people from Beijing gave me different perspectives on the reasons people do the jobs that they do.”
The connections students formed weren’t limited to professional contacts and resume advice, however. Junior Luca Giordano collaborated with ICUC student Miaomiao Huang to cover the second and final match of hometown favorite Qinwen Zheng, and the partnership yielded a rich combination of match coverage from Giordano and cultural details from his counterpart.
Giordano worked with another ICUC student to create a series of bilingual social media videos spotlighting tennis fans. Meanwhile, junior Mia Fleischer and senior Connor Greene also teamed up with Huang to report on the tournament’s opening ceremony.
Fleischer found the experience had an immediate impact on her skill set.
“Reflecting on where I was at the end of the tournament, you could really see the change that was made over that span of time,” she said. “I could see major improvements in my writing and my ability to interview and report on really high-profile people. And being able to witness the process of other professional journalists gives you a look into the profession in a way you don’t see when you’re in school.”
No matter the individual duties, Stern said all the students met the challenge of professional, on-deadline work on an international scale, an accomplishment that will serve them well as they prepare to embark on their careers.
“By the time they have finished this program, they have worked as journalists or strategic communicators at a professional sporting event in a global context,” Stern said. “That’s amazing. It really gives them the strength to go out into the world knowing what they can do.”
Updated: November 6, 2025