At age 15, Chris Dell got a job alongside his father as a sports reporter at The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida.
The young Mr. Dell had been invited to try out to write a weekly column covering youth sports in the area. He and his father got used to reporting and writing as peers.
“It got to a point where some days my dad and I would both have stories on the front page of the sports section,” said Mr. Dell, who has covered the Florida Gators, Major League Baseball and high school football for The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
“Eventually he started asking me for advice on ledes, rather than the other way around,” he said. “We were very competitive, but always supportive of each other.”
In 2010, Mr. Dell received a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of South Florida. Two years later, he left the newspaper and Sarasota for New York City to pursue a master’s degree in entrepreneurial journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Mr. Dell says he is optimistic about the future of journalism.
“Too many journalists have a negative outlook on the future of news media, but I couldn’t be more excited,” Mr. Dell said. “Journalism is ripe for disruption and innovation. Stories can be told in new ways. Writers can engage readers in ways never thought possible.”
After earning his master’s degree in December, Mr. Dell turned his attention to entrepreneurship. Most recently, he was a fellow at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism and a founding editor of a sports website for his graduate school called the CUNY Sports Report, where he serves as editor in chief. He also works as a freelance consultant to students and small businesses looking to develop an online presence.
Mr. Dell’s newest venture is Go Baller, an app for sports fans.
“We collect the most viral sports content on social media and put it in one place, personalized for each fan,” Mr. Dell said.
The app seems to have some early traction — it was a finalist at Startup Weekend NYC, a contest sponsored by Google.
Mr. Dell came to the New York Times Student Journalism Institute with a few goals. He wants to exchange ideas and “challenge the assumptions of traditional journalism” with his new colleagues and gain experience working alongside New York Times veterans.
“It’s a great opportunity,” he said.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 24, 2014
A previous version of this article mischaracterized the startup contest in which the Go Baller app was a finalist. It was not held by Google’s New York office.