When Penn State fans hear the name Caroline Jurevicius, they think of the star who helped lead the Nittany Lions to the 2024 women’s volleyball national championship.

However, what many of them don’t realize is that Jurevicius is shining off the court, too.

While she averaged over two kills per set and was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team this past season as a redshirt freshman, Jurevicius is also setting herself up for success through the various extracurricular activities she has been involved in since transferring from Nebraska.

For Jurevicius, the hard work outside of the gym is by design, and she’s using it to build a future career she can thrive in.

The daughter of Penn State football legend and 10-year NFL veteran Joe Jurevicius, Caroline was often told by her dad to find a passion other than playing volleyball because “sports end one day.”

“When my dad retired from football, he was kind of lost because he was here, and there was no passion in his major. My dad and my mom have done a great job of solidifying that in my head. I’m not going to be a volleyball player forever,” Jurevicius said. “So I was like, ‘I’m a driven person. What can I be doing right now to take advantage of my Penn State education and build that resume?’ So when that last ball drops and when I have to take off my knee pads for the last time, what can I do to help myself ultimately get into a field that I love?”

After spending one year at Nebraska and switching her major from international business to advertising and public relations, Jurevicius transferred to Penn State and began studying broadcast journalism. Since then, she has found the extracurricular passion her parents used to tell her about.

A student in the Bellisario College of Communications, Jurevicius has worked at the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament, shadowed at the March Madness studio, and become the Penn State men’s volleyball lead analyst for BTN+, all in the last few weeks.

While participating in the Big Ten-CBS Immersion Program with five other athletes from the conference, Jurevicius spent three days in mid-March at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, learning the ins and outs of the sports TV industry.

“We spent the first day shadowing people, having a ton of meetings, and jotting notes on everything that was out there. The second day was more meetings, but you were able to move around with people and see the meat and potatoes. The third day, you were actually put into grunt work, and you were stationed with people in your specific field that you wanted to go into,” Jurevicius said.

On that third and final day of the program, Jurevicius spent eight hours in the production truck, sitting next to replay producers and taking in their ability to perform in the high-pressure environment, which she called “the coolest experience.”

After returning to Happy Valley following the tournament, which took place over spring break, Jurevicius wasted no time getting into her next broadcast-oriented experience.

On March 28, Jurevicius made her color commentary debut on BTN+, the streaming service of the Big Ten Network, for the Penn State men’s volleyball match against Charleston, and she did so once again the next day. She will also be on the broadcast of the series against Princeton on April 18 and 19.

“That was just so, so fun for me because I get to talk about something that I love and I do every day,” Jurevicius said. “[Players] know the fundamentals of volleyball while we’re playing, but the people at home may not know the intricacies of everything, so it’s really cool for me to be able to see a different side of the court and paint that picture.”

Despite not being sure about her future, Jurevicius said the recent opportunity opened her eyes to the possibility of becoming a volleyball color commentator at the collegiate or professional level.

“If you would have asked me that two weeks ago, I would have been like, ‘not really’ just because I’ve been in [volleyball] for so long, but now after that analyst experience, I’m like, ‘I know this sport, and I actually could be good at this,'” she said.

Jurevicius will have two years of volleyball eligibility remaining after her May 2026 graduation and plans to continue playing for the Nittany Lions while earning a master’s degree in entrepreneurship at the university she calls home.

Still unsure of what she wants to do after her time at Penn State is complete, Jurevicius will either pursue a professional volleyball career overseas or move to a major city and work for a sports production company, but before then, she is simply enjoying her time at Penn State.

“I’m able to be somewhere where I’m happy and in a major that I love,” Jurevicius said.