Patrick Gabriel Torres discovered his calling the way many Fordham students do—by accident.
An injury sidelined him from the track team in his first year, and he was looking to stay involved with athletics on campus.
“I kind of decided to just pick up a camera and shoot sports that were going on,” he says.
That curiosity turned into a career path.
Torres now works for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the 2024 WNBA Champion New York Liberty. The Liberty are also an official Fordham community partner.
As a content production intern, Torres has a hand in everything from Instagram photos and TikToks to gameday hype videos shown in the Barclays Center.
“My time at Fordham definitely prepared me to be in that setting,” Torres says. “I think Fordham pushes you to grow in ways that you don't necessarily expect.”
From Obstacle to Opportunity
For Torres, that growth started when he began posting videos of his track teammates to his personal social media. He found friends with similar interests, and they formed Fordham Athletics Creative Media, a growing group of students who get paid to create content for Fordham Athletics and each of the Rams’ Division I teams.
“We were just doing it for the love of the game, really,” he says. “But I’m so glad it turned into an opportunity for other people as well.”
By covering nearly every sport on campus, students hone their craft, build a professional portfolio, and land internships and postgrad jobs with pro teams and major sports leagues.
“Seeing all these people end up in different places opened up my eyes to the idea that this could really be a career,” Torres says.
An Unconventional Path to Storytelling
Torres studied integrative neuroscience at Fordham, thinking he might pursue a career in medicine. He chose another path, but instead of changing his major, he stuck with neuroscience and added minors in Asian American studies and digital technologies and emerging media.
That mix of majors might seem unusual, but “it kind of comes together in the type of person I am,” he says, and makes him a better storyteller.
Torres wrote his undergraduate thesis on how short-form video affects the production of emotions in our brains. And his courses in Asian American studies helped him explore “how concepts of identity affect the way we tell our stories.”
Torres working on a shoot outside of Barclays Center
Now, he’s using those insights and skills—and his passion for sports—to tell stories that move fans. After his time with the New York Liberty, Torres will head to a graduate program in sports media and storytelling. He says it wouldn’t be possible without his internship—and the unexpected Fordham experiences that led him there.
“It's been a great opportunity to get an inside look at a high-performing sports business in the New York City market,” he says. “I think it’s been exactly what I needed, preparing me for where I want to go.”