Valeria Bautista Misakova

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT VALERIA BAUTISTA MISAKOVA

I stepped on American soil for the first time when I was seven years old. The unfamiliarity of this new world, along with my shy personality, was very isolating from a young age. Even after spending countless hours perfecting my English, my heavy accent was often poked at. However harsh the roadblocks were, there was always something I stood out in. In elementary school, I took great honor in being the fastest kid at recess. I played flag football on an all-boys team, and through the Boys and Girls Club, I fell in love with basketball. Sports are deeply embedded in my nostalgia and upbringing, especially in a world I wasn’t sure would be kind to me. My senior year of high school I knew I wanted to go to college. I had the grades and ambition to make it far, but I wasn’t sure I actually would since nobody in my family could afford it. Notre Dame was kind enough to step in and give me a full-ride, where I decided to study physics. My journey has been incredibly holistic. I was dead-set on getting a PhD in astrophysics, until I joined the Sport, Media, and Culture minor my sophomore year. I started to rethink my strongest academic interests, while still pursuing physics. I played intramural sports, worked long hours at the Rec Center both as an attendant and supervisor, worked in media/broadcasting with Fighting Irish Media, and after being a committed ND Women’s Basketball fan, was given the opportunity to be one of eight student managers. Everything just kept coming back to sports! Moreover, I found myself buried in literature, exploring rabbit holes about the structures surrounding women’s sports, both socially and economically. I am enthralled by how media operates and influences, how stories are told, and the great privilege I’ve been entrusted with to tell the stories of skateboarders and BMX athletes at South Bend’s skatepark, or Las Tejanas, who played softball during the farmworkers Chicano movement and are the first Latino/a population in South Bend. As a senior at Notre Dame, I carry countless lessons about life and sports with me wherever I go. I plan on furthering my education and passion for sports through graduate school, where I will study sport management. My ambition is to one day work for an organization that values and cares about women’s sports, whether it’s the WNBA, NWSL, or the AUSL.