Bouza’s journey to ESPN was a winding one with a few false starts. As she approached graduation from CSUB, her goal was to work as a writer for a newspaper, preferably covering sports, but she quickly found that the job outlook wasn’t ideal.
“It was a time when a lot of newspapers were closing and there was not a lot of jobs available,” she said.
After a classmate suggested trying broadcast news, Bouza reached out to one of the local news channels, KBAK, and was able to secure a summer internship there as a production assistant. After the internship ended, she was hired to cover local high school football games.
“They really set me on my path to do television and covering sports that way,” she said. “At the time, I still wasn’t convinced that this was exactly what my path was going to be. I still missed writing. I said to myself that in order for me to continue down the producing path, I’d have to go to ESPN. If you want to work in sports television, that is the best place to do it in the business.”
Bouza brought this up to one of her mentors at CSUB, now-retired Associate Professor of Communications Judith Pratt, who found an internship at ESPN being offered through the Association of Women in Sports Media and urged her to apply.
“I knew she really wanted to learn,” Pratt said. “She threw herself into her schoolwork and became very skilled. She thrives under pressure and likes having competition.”
Bouza applied for the internship the December before her final semester at CSUB but didn’t end up getting it. The day after being notified, however, she received an email from an ESPN employee who asked if Bouza wanted to interview for a full-time production assistant position, to which she quickly agreed. The interview did not go as well as Bouza had hoped.
“I completely bombed the interview,” she said. “They were asking me about sports I didn’t watch or cover. I didn’t realize the depth of knowledge that would be required. I knew I had to figure out how to be better next time, if there was a next time.”
That next time came three months later. While walking to a class at CSUB, Bouza received a phone call from the ESPN headquarters offering her a production assistant job.
“I accepted it on the spot. It really felt like this was my opportunity to strike out on my own, to leave my hometown,” she said. “I got on a red-eye flight the same day I walked in my graduation. I started two weeks later and moved across the country hoping for the best. Fourteen years later, I’m still here.”
Bouza joined ESPN on a seven-month trial period as part of its production assistant trainee program. She produced a wide range of content, from “SportsCenter” highlights to teases for “Sunday NFL Countdown.”
“Being at ESPN exceeded my expectations,” she said. “I missed home a lot, but it was fun.”
Bouza was hired to stay on in the role after her probation was up, spending a total of two years as a production assistant before moving up to being an associate producer.
After over four years with the company, Bouza felt she had reached a point when she needed to decide what kind of future career she wanted to have at ESPN.
“I was at a career crossroads,” she said. “It was important for me to decide if wanted to go the executive route or continue to produce for the rest of my career.”
Bouza decided to apply to be the manager of production enhancements and got the job. She oversaw the research and development of new techniques aimed at improving ESPN’s content and storytelling. After doing that for about three years, she became an associate supervisor of motion graphics, managing ESPN’s motion graphics projects and overseeing a group of seven graphic designers.
“I had never managed anyone before that time and didn’t have any graphics experience, so I had to get up to speed with how the company creates all the graphics for our live and taped programming,” she said. “I knew all these roles I had would get me closer to my end goal, which was to be an executive.”