Fiesta Bowl – Women’s History Month: Jen Schuck, Caption Pros
The content of this article is originally from the Fiesta Bowl website. Read the full article here!
Sitting in a court room as a court reporter in Chicago, Jen Schuck always knew she wanted to ultimately become a captioner. She just needed to figure out how to turn an aspiration into reality and trade the courtroom for a world of possibilities to make a difference.

“I liked the idea of using my skills for good,” Schuck said with a laugh. “As a court reporter, I was young and I loved it, but I realized that I was around people who argued all day. Their sole purpose was to argue.”
Her dream became reality in 2004 when Schuck founded Caption Pros, a captioning company she still serves as president. Based in Scottsdale, Caption Pros provides both on-site and remote captioning services for clients, including several Fortune 100 companies.
As part of the suite of services, Schuck and Caption Pros provide real-time transcription for all Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl press conferences and Media Days every December. The Fiesta Bowl Organization’s two bowl games are part of Caption Pros’ sports clientele, which also includes the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Goodyear Cotton Bowl, Texas A&M Athletics and the approaching 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Final Four in Phoenix.
While Caption Pros’ work with the Fiesta Bowl began several years prior, the partnership officially began ahead of the 2018-19 Fiesta Bowl featuring LSU and UCF. Connecting with Caption Pros was an easy decision, given the company’s local presence and the organization’s commitment to the state of Arizona.
“When I came to the Fiesta Bowl, we were using a national company that serves most of the major sports properties. But the Fiesta Bowl’s mission is to serve Arizona and enhance the lives of Arizonans in all that we do,” said Fiesta Bowl Vice President of Communications Scott Leightman. “After meeting Jen and learning about her company’s credentials and past work, we made the switch pretty quickly. The levels of service and quality we have received – and in turn that our media enjoy to do their job better – make it a win/win partnership.”
When asked about her favorite memories over the years, Schuck recalled transcribing former Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton’s 2011 BCS National Championship Game Media Day availability while sitting under his table due to the sheer number of media around his dais.
The annual team arrival press conferences on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport also make the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl unique.
“I think I’m one of the few people in my profession who can say that I’ve done a press conference on a tarmac with a 747 taking off in the background,” Schuck said.
Beyond that, what Schuck enjoys about working with the Fiesta Bowl is the opportunity for her and her team – consisting of primarily women in a female-dominated profession – to come together annually for the holidays and do what they love.

“Every year, it’s like a family reunion. The organization has the consistency of the same volunteers year after year, which speaks volumes to how they run their bowl games,” Schuck said. “We’re honored and privileged to be part of that family and to be invited back every year. It’s a wonderful way to end the year during the holidays. The Fiesta Bowl supports us and sets us up for success and we just absolutely love it.”
Given the Fiesta Bowl’s mission to give back to Arizona communities, so does Caption Pros, who among the great work that they do in the state, sponsors the Arizona Walk4Hearing each year to raise money for those with hearing loss.
After Schuck completed a training program – funded by a federal government grant due to the Federal Communications Commission’s impending rules requiring closed captions – to become a captioner, she eventually moved from the midwest to the southwest and founded Caption Pros.
Although her initial introduction into captioning was for television, Schuck received an opportunity to work with students in the Scottsdale Unified School District who had hearing loss, which prompted necessary accommodation in the classroom.
It wasn’t long before Schuck supported children with hearing loss in their classrooms across the Valley, expanding to the Paradise Valley and Dysart Unified School Districts. This prompted her to grow her team in short order, training captioners and assisting school districts for six years.

As Schuck’s captioning skills grew, so did her professional opportunities. She began traveling internationally to do captioning for another five years, and it was during this time that Caption Pros started to branch their services out to transcribing.
“(Caption Pros’ growth) really began when my team grew and my business name didn’t reflect what I was doing on a full-time basis anymore,” Schuck said. “My philosophy is working as a team. I’m not one person. I could not do the job I do today and I can’t support my clients without my team, which is why the name is Caption Pros. Plural – it is with intention.
“I changed the name to reflect the service that we provide. It is my goal to be the best that we can be and for my team to be the best in the entire industry. I don’t want a client to ever feel like they have not hired the best person for the job, and we go to great lengths to make sure that is how our clients feel.”
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“On top of the high-quality performance year in and year out, they are innovative by bringing new and better approaches to the tasks,” Leightman said. “We couldn’t be happier with what Caption Pros does and the friendly team of people who we get to work with every year.”
If there is one thing that Schuck is passionate about, it would be inclusivity and accessibility. She strives to break down communication barriers and create a world where everyone can be heard and valued.
To her credit, Schuck’s credentials speak for herself. An award-winning real-time captioner, Schuck was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Professional Reporters in 2016. She was instrumental in founding and ultimately served as Chair of the Global Alliance of Speech-to-Text Captioning, the only trade organization solely dedicated to the captioning industry, in addition to serving as Chair for the National Court Reporters Association’s Captioning Committee.

However, with all her achievements, she remains rooted in what she always longed to do: use her skills for good. An important driver for her at Caption Pros is to be a leader of a team, alongside Tracy Reinke, Liane Tomlinson, Jill Rausch and Sebrina Crosby, who will continue to provide the Fiesta Bowl Organization with high-level transcriptions as college football enters a new era with the expanded playoff.
“I don’t view myself as a boss. My mission is to empower clients, but I also personally want to empower the captioners with whom I work,” Schuck said. “I believe we all have something to learn from one another. The Fiesta Bowl is the perfect experience where a team of us come together and we get to see each other in person, sit next to each other and see how each person is handling a certain scenario. We always learn something every single year at the Fiesta Bowl just from being together.”
The content of this article is originally from the Fiesta Bowl website. Read the full article here!
Inclusivity for all
At Caption Pros, our team of certified and professional human captioners provide accurate captioning services for many types of events. From public forums to business meetings, virtual conferences, and even the Fiesta Bowl, we will help to make your next event accessible to all participants.
Learn more about our award-winning captioning services.