Chahna Parikh isn’t just any third-year at the Commerce School. She’s someone with a unique eye and corresponding skill set that many of her peers don’t have. That’s because the she’s also an Assistant Video Editor for UVA Football.
Parikh’s interest in the sport began long before she ever set foot on Grounds. Growing up, she was an avid football fan, a passion that played a significant role in forming the college experience she’s enjoying now. She was drawn to apply to UVA because she wanted to be challenged academically, to experience some independence away from her coastal Commonwealth hometown of Yorktown, VA, and to go to a large school—in part because she’s really into college athletics. “I guess I got what I wanted,” Parikh says with a hint of irony.
“I love sports. I love watching them,” she shares. Her deep-seated enthusiasm led her to a job listing on the Virginia Athletics website months before she even came to UVA. Parikh sent an email to Assistant Athletics Director for Video Services Luke Goldstein, now her boss. He wanted her to get acclimated to being a UVA student first, which she did, and by that spring, she found herself on the video team, capturing and producing film for UVA Football coaches. “I stumbled onto it accidentally, and I’m really glad that I did,” Parikh says.
Though she was initially uncertain about the depth of her technical skills, Parikh embraced the challenge head on. She quickly got acclimated to the schedule, joining the team and learning the requisite skills on the job. Starting as a shooter (cameraperson), her responsibilities soon included editing as well, a task that she found more fitting. While she usually shoots some video during segments of practice and games, her main role has her editing footage collected from all of the shooters to create cohesive game films for the coaches to study.
Her work with the football team is demanding, especially during the fall camp, when her commitment can span every single day. But during the season, Parikh’s usually putting in three-hour mornings twice a week, plus shooting and preparing for all home games and as well as well as three away games for the 2024 season.
“For away games, we leave the night before, stay at a hotel, and in the morning, go set up our cameras a couple of hours before the game. For home games, we’ll go to the stadium in the morning or, if it’s a night game, early afternoon. Then we’ll set up our stuff, help whoever needs help, and then about 30 minutes before the game, we go back to our posts, standing at the very top of the stadium,” she explains.
Despite the rigorous schedule, Parikh finds immense joy in her job, particularly because of the camaraderie and friendships she’s formed. “I love who I work with. The people are honestly my favorite part,” she adds.
Parikh’s passion for her work with UVA Football complements her academic pursuits at McIntire. Originally intending to major in Neuroscience, her path took an unexpected turn after she took an introductory Economics class. “I took Intro to Micro, and I really liked it,” she says. This newfound interest in economics, and finance more broadly, led her to the Comm School. “I realized that at McIntire I could major in Finance,” she says. After completing an internship at Towne Bank last summer, her interest in the field was solidified, adding practical exposure to the banking sector. She plans to concentrate in Finance and IT.
In addition to contemplating a track in Business Analytics to complement her Finance focus, her academic ambitions don’t stop there: Parikh is also one class away from completing a minor in Data Science.
Outside of her academic and football commitments, Parikh is also a member of UVA Sharaara, an all-girls Bollywood fusion dance team. The highly energetic club undertakes storytelling through dance, often interpreting plots from Hollywood films. Though they dance at UVA, their routines don’t exist in a vacuum; Parikh says they’re regularly putting their skills to the test off Grounds. “We compete in an eight-minute set of six to seven different styles of dance all across the country. It’s really fun; it’s a very good creative outlet for me, and a great way to release stress,” she says, adding that the 30 competitors have become her best friends.
Parikh’s journey is a testament to her versatility and drive. Her ability to balance a demanding academic schedule with her responsibilities as an Assistant Video Editor and dancer is impressive. As she looks forward to her future, Parikh is excited about an internship at J.P. Morgan in Atlanta next year. “I’ve always wanted to have some sort of management position in the future,” she says, aiming to gain a broader perspective on banking and leadership.
As she continues her time at UVA, she thinks back to her Commerce Law class with Professor Sherri Moore and the talk she heard on the final day of class, which has continued to inspire her way of thinking about the challenges she faces.
“That has stuck with me since I’ve taken her class my second year. It really motivated me to always see the good in everything, and not to let every little thing let me down. Because my entire first year, I was extremely stressed out,” she confesses. “It was really hard for me to go hang out with my friends or do anything besides study. [Moore’s] life lesson really taught me to go do things for myself, to take a break, and not let little things upset me.”
Next for Parikh? It’s to be determined as she learns more from her Finance courses: “I’m keeping an open mind as I go into McIntire.”