Claire Gallagher was sitting inside NBC Sports’ production facility in Stamford, Connecticut, watching the Olympics unfold on television when a realization struck her.

“Oh, I made that commercial,” she remembered thinking. “Oh, I interviewed that athlete. That’s my piece.”

For Gallagher, a 2023 Van Alstyne High School graduate, it was a surreal realization—and the latest step in a career that began years earlier with a camera right here in Van Alstyne.

Gallagher moved to Van Alstyne in fourth grade. Her three older siblings also attended Van Alstyne ISD, and her father has worked in the community for a decade.

Her interest in video started even earlier. As a child, Gallagher used her mother’s iPad to direct her cousins in homemade movies. By middle school, she had received her first camera and was filming football games, cheerleaders and other school activities.

That early interest found a home at VAISD.

While Gallagher was in eighth grade, then-principal Kelly Moore gave her the opportunity to create the Junior High Graduation video. In high school, she enrolled in the introductory course that led her to VATV, where teacher Mark Campbell encouraged her to continue developing her photography and videography skills.

Gallagher spent her sophomore, junior and senior years producing documentaries, creating student features and covering Panther athletics from the sidelines.

“VATV was pretty much the segue into my career now,” Gallagher said. “I got to work on documentaries and feature packages about different students and cover the football games, and all of that was definitely what set up my career.”

Her work also brought state recognition. Gallagher and her sister advanced to the UIL State competition with a deeply personal documentary focused on a local family. The project earned a gold medal and remains one of Gallagher’s favorite memories from VAHS.

“Getting to put that moment on screen and then take it all the way to get a gold medal was definitely fantastic,” she said.

After graduation, Gallagher attended the University of Texas at Austin and immediately began looking for opportunities to expand her portfolio. She filmed documentaries through the university’s student newspaper, covered Longhorn football games and approached Austin comedy clubs with an offer to shoot photographs and video at no cost.

That willingness to create her own opportunities soon placed her on a red carpet at South by Southwest, where Gallagher learned that mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor would be promoting the film “Road House.”

“This has to happen,” Gallagher recalled. “I will get on that.”

Surrounded by experienced media professionals, Gallagher worked her way into position and interviewed McGregor. The resulting clip went viral.

“It was only one year after being in high school,” she said. “Being able to take a chance on myself in that moment was definitely pivotal.”

Gallagher later earned an internship with UFC in Las Vegas, where she filmed fights and helped create promotional content. The internship led to an offer for a full-time position.

While balancing professional work with online classes, Gallagher eventually decided to return her focus to school. Before she could do so, however, another opportunity arrived: a position with NBC Sports.

Gallagher moved to the New York area, continued her education online through Arizona State University and joined NBC Sports as a production assistant. In the months leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics, she pulled footage, interviewed athletes and edited packages.

Once the Games began, a shift happened within NBC Sports and Gallagher was promoted to producer.

Her shifts would keep her at the studio into the overnight and early morning hours, cutting content in real time as Olympic coverage aired around her.

“It was the craziest experience of my life,” Gallagher said. Seeing her work appear during the Olympic broadcast was “a surreal experience that I couldn’t compare to anything else.”

Although her career has already taken her from Van Alstyne to Austin, Las Vegas and New York, Gallagher continues to draw upon the lessons she learned at VAISD.

She credits her teachers and coaches with instilling the drive to accept correction, improve her work and continue moving forward when something is difficult.

Gallagher still remembers something Coach Mendez would tell her volleyball players during the most difficult portion of a workout: “You can do anything for 30 seconds.”

“Sometimes it’s not always 30 seconds, but maybe it’s that last push to the finish line,” Gallagher said. “You can do hard things. You can achieve hard things. You don’t have to be perfect with it, but you have to get to the finish line.”

It is a lesson Gallagher first learned as a Panther; and one she continues to carry with her as she builds her career.