PBS Scholarship Winner is Headed for a Career in Sports Broadcasting

Timothy Yean, an incoming RIC freshman, has been awarded the 2024 Rhode Island PBS Scholarship, which provides up to $15,000 per year for four years to high school seniors interested in careers in broadcasting, communication or journalism. A Cranston East High School graduate, Yean is a communication major and aspires to become a sports broadcaster.

“I felt like my résumé was strong, but there’s nothing to describe the feeling of getting the call that I won this scholarship,” Yean says.

“My parents are happy for me, but I think I’m happier that I get to take the burden of my education off of them with this full ride,” he says.

This is the seventh year Rhode Island PBS has awarded scholarships of up to $15,000 annually through a $1 million scholarship fund administered by the Rhode Island Foundation.

Academically, 18-year-old Yean ranked among the top 30 students in his graduating class with a 4.1 grade point average.

“I’ve always felt that I wasn’t that much smarter than others, but I did my work well,” he says. “Realizing that I wanted to get into journalism and broadcasting as a career, I knew it was important to excel in my English classes.”

Yean says he became a sports aficionado after watching the 2018 Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots.

“I recall going to a Super Bowl party that year and having fun in that environment,” he says. “I wanted to be involved in sports but knew it wouldn’t be as an athlete.”

For Yean, commentating about sports has been the next best thing. As one of the lead broadcasters for Cranston East High’s sports teams, his and his colleagues’ sports coverage garnered more than 1,000 Instagram followers.

That’s the type of attention Yean hopes to contribute to RIC sports.

“Being able to report and broadcast sports in a larger way here at RIC would not only be big for school pride but serve as a way to continue connecting players with the school community,” he says.

At Cranston East, a “Writing for Sports Media” course taught him about professionalism and harnessed his ability to broadcast sporting events as they unfold. Yean notes that as younger people are entering the sports media field, they’re covering sports in untraditional ways.

“Social media has become such a big part of how we view content,” he says. “We like short-form content that can be accessed for free on the internet.”

Yean looks up to ESPN sport media juggernauts like Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski and the late Providence Journal sports journalist Art Martone and hopes to one day fill their shoes.

One of his other scholarships is named in honor of Martone, who before passing away in 2022 forged a path in digital media by writing one of the first online sports blogs in New England.

“After I received that scholarship, Martone’s wife told me at the post-convocation ceremony that the article I wrote about a championship high school basketball game was reminiscent of her husband’s writing. In my eyes, that’s one of the best compliments I could receive,” he says.