This internship was one of the best experiences I have had with moving towards my career goals. My long-term goals include being an athletic director one day and having a positive influence on student-athletes. One aspect of the internship that added to my personal development would be my communication skills. I have struggled in the past with communication but I was forced to do a lot of this in the internship. From talking to other athletic department members, reaching out to community partners, making phone calls, sending emails, communicating with businesses about promotional items and more, I greatly increased my communication skills. Some of the experiences during the internship related to my academic coursework. In my coursework, I have learned about sponsorships, fundraising, human resources, business management and more. I was able to take what I learned about these aspects and dedicate them to my internship. The quality of supervision and communication with my supervisor was great. I was able to communicate with TJ day in and day out, conversating about the things I am learning, what new things I will be doing and how I am enjoying the internship. If I ever needed help or was confused with something I was doing, everyone was willing to assist me. The mentorship has influenced my career objectives in a few ways. I have always wanted to be a college athletic director, but it has made me realize I would rather start at a high school for a period of time. A college athletic director and the department staff have many responsibilities, deadlines and lots of experience that contribute to their success. I need to continue getting as much experience as possible as I move through my career whether that be more internships, volunteer work or entry-level sports jobs. There are many opportunities that I am able to take advantage of and now I have a support system if I ever need help finding something. If anyone else was looking for an internship, I would highly suggest reaching out to the CWRU athletic department. When I was first looking for an internship, I simply reached out to TJ, we had a phone call, we met in person and it was very welcoming. The advice I would give to someone about working in athletics is that every day is different, there are long and crazy hours and you can meet some pretty awesome people who share the same interests as you.
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Today was the official last day of my internship. It was the Spartan Welcome that I have been helping to prepare for since the end of June. I helped with creating a promotional item, catering, and forming a spreadsheet with the prices for everything. The event was scheduled to start around 5:30-6 and we were hoping to see around 300-500 athletes. When I first got there, I helped set up the tables with food and get everything organized. We were catered by the Jolly Scholar and they brought veggie burgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, apples, and we provided chips and cookies. All the burgers and hot dogs were in hot trays inside the large coolers. The potato salad was in large cooler bags and was individually packaged in 4oz cups to make it easier for grab and go. All of the coaches and staff members attended and took part in serving the food. We had three tables set up with all the same items on it to make the lines go by faster. My job was to continue refilling any items they needed. For example, if a table ran out of hot dogs, I would bring them a new tray. This seems easy, but let me tell ya, we were running out of food quickly. One thing we learned from this event was that athletes love burgers and are not a huge fan of potato salad (we even ordered more burgers than anything else). I was not mad though, because I got to take a bunch of potato salad home. Anyways, after the athletes received their food, they all sat in the bleachers together so that we could take a big picture of them all. While they were sitting there, each of the coaches and department members stood on the field with a microphone and introduced themselves. It was fun to see all the athletes come through the lines with their team gear on, almost every team showed up. The athletes were also able to enjoy cool sunglasses with a CWRU Spartan logo that we provided everyone with. When the event came to a close I helped clean everything up, packed up the car for the caterers and then said goodbye to everyone. It was sad saying goodbye and giving hugs but everyone said we would be staying in touch.
Knowing today was my last day working inside the athletic department made me sad. I have had such a great time coming here every day and learning new things. I started by finishing the athletic trainer calendars and then presenting them to TJ and Missy. I made them aware and wrote down which games had empty spots and needed to be covered by a UH athletic trainer. I did not fully know how the athletic trainer process worked at first so they explained to me how some games were non-impact sports and did not need an athletic trainer to cover them. There were maybe only two games that they needed to hire someone from UH, which made them happy. When I finished doing this, Missy had scheduled an appointment for us to make a trip to the archives building and finish our search for women in sports from the 1960s-2002. The archives building was a short walk from the Veale Center so it did not take us long to get there. When we first arrived, we had to buzz in and let the front desk lady know who we were. She already had all the articles, folders, newspapers and more laid out for us to make the search easier. It took us nearly two hours to get through reading (almost) everything. It was interesting because anything we wrote down or took a picture of, they wanted us to record on paper so the archives building knew what stood out to us. Whenever we found something important such as a rewarded female athlete, we would write it down and all of the information that followed her. The best part was being able to see the way things were done back then and how much they have changed to the current day. For example, in the 1900s nothing was done electronically and the paper was old, the writing was different and the stats were written differently. What did not come as a surprise to us, was that there was little information regarding female figures in sports. Everything was mostly focused around the male sports. Case Western Reserve University was not a thing until 1967. Before that, it was two separate schools, Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve. When we were done looking, we had compiled a few pages of notes of women that Missy is going to reach out too. I would say we were quite successful and it was a good experience to learn about the past of CWRU. I met up with Kasey in the beginning of the day today and helped her file cards for locker slips. The locker cards are given to each of the coaches and any staff members who want one. The locker rooms are near the issue room, where Kasey’s office is, and they are able to store their belongings while they workout, play games, go swimming and more. When I finished helping her with the locker cards, I emailed a few more youth soccer organizations in the area about attending and becoming engaged with Case games. One of the organizations, Shaker Youth Soccer Association (SYSA), emailed me back saying they are interested. We worked out which games they would like to attend and they chose the men's soccer game on October 22 and the women’s soccer game on September 27. Then, I was asked by Missy to merge calendars on google drive. There are various spreadsheets for calendars of different facilities, departments, people and the master game schedule. It allows you to filter out what you would like to look at so everything is not on there and just what you are looking for. The point of doing this was to have all the facilities on one calendar with the different teams using them and at what time. From October to November, the calendars consisted mostly of football, volleyball, men and women's cross country, swim and dive, physical education classes, men and women’s soccer, wrestling, and men and women’s tennis. I printed out this calendar with all the teams and times on it in order for me to label an athletic trainer for each game. There are three athletic trainers at the moment (in search of a fourth). Their names are Spence, Cady and head trainer Jay. Each trainer covers certain teams but there could be 4-5 games in one day. If this were to happen, I needed to label N/A, meaning the athletic department would need to hire a trainer from University Hospitals (UH) to cover the game. The trainers go with the teams on away games, so it was needed to make a plan of who would be covering what.
Today when I came into Case, I met with TJ per usual and we talked about my internship coming to an end. He had mentioned how he was used to having me around helping out and it will be different once I leave. This statement made me feel good because I felt like I had made an impact by being there. When I first started my internship, I was unsure what to expect. I have never reached out to community partners, ordered wholesale promotional items, planned events, attended large meetings and more. This internship has surpassed my expectations and helped me gain valuable information that I can carry with me throughout my career. The one thing I wish I would have done differently, was begin my internship closer to the time student-athletes and coaches were back on campus. I have got to experience some of this for the month of August where it became more chaotic with everybody returning, but I feel that I could have learned more about various processes with fall seasons starting. My last day is scheduled for August 28, which is a Saturday and the Athletes “Spartan Welcome Back Day.” I contributed to much of the planning for it, so I am excited to see the turnout. While at Case today, I started by taking the school supply donation box I made over to the Crawford Hall to leave with the woman in charge of it all, Theresa. She was very pleased with my school bus design and the amount of supplies we collected. Theresa emailed Missy a few days later and said, “that school bus was sooooo cute. Thank you so much for all your help. I am going to take some pictures for our website of it.” This was a special moment for me because I was happy to make an impact on the supply drive.
Today was different than most days because I came to Case later in the day. The reasoning for this was because I was going to be assisting with the high school football game that was being played on DiSanto Field which is attached to the Wyant Center. Since it is not a college game, not everyone from the department needed to show up. It was Kasey, Joel, Shawn and me. I got there around 5:00pm and found Kasey. During days like these where there are late or multiple games, the needed staff tends to come into work later on. Once I found Kasey, we went up to the press box and made sure the sound system was working correctly with the music and for the playing of the national anthem. Many fans enjoy sitting on the roof of the parking garage where they have a distinct view of the football game. We had to direct many people in that direction as people were tailgating, recording, and just ready to watch the game. During the game, I helped do laundry for the men and women soccer teams because they had just finished practice before the football game started. When the teams are done with practice, they have a large laundry bin in each of their locker rooms. If their laundry does not make it in the bin, it does not get washed because we just collect the bin. It makes the process much easier since all the clothing is on a loop with their number. I started by washing and drying their practice clothes and towels. I then washed their jerseys which have a separate process of being hung to dry in numerical order. Once their practice clothes loops were done, we put the loops back in the laundry bin, rolled it to their locker room and hung all the numbered loops in their locker. The towels all got washed, dried, folded and then set on their towel rack in the locker room.
Today was already going to be a great day because the athletic department was invited to go to lunch at the Shoreby Country Club by TJ. Everyone showed up to work in nice clothes and was excited to take a short break and enjoy each other's time. TJ planned this because he wanted to show the athletic department staff that he was proud of their hard work all summer and I was lucky to be invited. Before going to lunch with everyone, I made copies of the football marketing spreadsheet and made one for soccer and volleyball. The point for doing this was to find game promotions and groups that we can bring to the games. While working at Case, a position for the Assistant Softball Coach & PE Teacher became available and I was interested. I was able to meet the head coach today and get to know her a little bit. Afterwards, everyone went to lunch and it was a great time. I rode with two other women in the athletic department. The Shoreby Club had an amazing front and center view of Lake Erie with a giant pool and club. It was great to understand everyone’s personality’s outside of the work environment and simply chill out for a little bit. When we arrived back at Case, it was time for me to leave because I had a zoom interview with the Committee for the Assistant Softball Coach & PE Teacher position because I had applied for the job. I was very nervous about the Physical Education teacher aspect of the position but it was a good experience to go through the interview. The interview consisted of the head coach, an athletic trainer, the assistant basketball coach and the director for undergraduate admissions. I was in a rush making myself seem slightly chaotic, but like I said, it was a good experience.
My internship will be coming to an end in the next two weeks and it honestly has made me sad to think about. I have met amazing people, learned an extended amount of knowledge and I enjoy coming here every day. One thing I have noticed about the athletic department is that most of the communication is done through email between one another. I would not change anything except the fact of meeting in-person more often. For example, everyone in the athletic department should come together in a face-to-face meeting once a week to update each other on any new information or just simply what they have all been working on. I am not implying their communication is bad whatsoever, but it may be beneficial to hold weekly meetings. When I came into Case today, I was excited that we were placing the order for the promotional scarves I helped to design. Missy and TJ let me decide which design we were going to pick and I picked sample #3. The company “Sport Scarf” had the cheapest but best quality scarves I found. After we placed that order, I worked on reaching out to local youth groups in the community to be engaged at football and soccer games. Two of these groups included America Scores and the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP). I explained in the email that the kids in the soccer organization could be ball shaggers and get an announcement during a soccer game and the kids in the NYSP program, which we already have at Case, can come enjoy pizza before a football game and get announced at half time. The last thing I did today was sit in on a zoom meeting with Joel as he conversated with the construction workers about the improvements needed to the facilities.
I went into Case today and met up with TJ in his office. We always have weekly chats about how my internship is going, what I like about it and the new things I’m learning. When we got done chatting, I had the task of creating a document and researching pre-game football activities for fans to engage in. There are many opportunities to provide for the fans to have a good time. I already had some ideas in mind, but I decided to do research on what activities other schools provided for fans. I simply listed off various activities in my document that I thought would generate fan engagement and provide entertainment. Some of these included a pre-game tailgate (which most colleges do), cornhole tournaments, a cookout, party games (ex. Kan Jam, giant jenga, etc.) and more. Students and community fans love to be involved in activities before a game. Another idea is to raffle off items such as clothing or accessories. When I finished with my list of activities, I reviewed the scarves that I had been working on. We finally received the sample scarves from a few companies and it was time to decide which one we were going to proceed with. It was much appreciated that the companies had given us various mock-up designs to choose from so we had options on which we thought would look the best. TJ, Missy and I conversated about which company was best to go with based off of the scarf sample and the prices. We made a decision to go with a company named “Sport Scarf.” The delivery time was around 6 weeks for each company which means we would expect them to arrive by mid-September. I will not be in the internship at that point, but I was made aware that I will receive updates about the scarves and how they turned out when they arrive. This was really exciting that I got to create a promotional item for the athletic department and I can’t wait to see what they look like. When I arrived at Case today, I met up with Missy. She had a special project for me that I was very interested in doing. This project consisted of finding old scrapbooks from 1968-2002 and searching for women leaders in sports. The reason for doing this was because one day during halftime of a football game or any sporting event, she wanted to recognize women who participated in sports from years ago. This meant I was in charge of finding their names, some slight statistics if possible and then she could invite them to honor at games. It was quite hard to find scrapbooks from such a long time ago, but I spent a long time digging in the basement storage room that lies under the swimming pool in Veale. Previously, Missy knew there were scrapbooks, rosters, teams, names and more noted by a woman named Nancy Gray who made them. The goal was to recognize one female from each decade and honor them for their athletic abilities they had at Case. When I was doing my search in the basement, it was tough because there were not many scrapbooks that recognized women in them. The very first women’s sport documented at Case was Volleyball in 1971, right before Title lX passed in 1972. I mentioned to Missy that I could not find much information and we decided that one day we would take a trip to the archives building. Once I concluded my search for scrapbooks, I sat in on a meeting that outlined football game day management. Football games consist of “all hands on deck” which means everyone in the athletic department is mandated to work them. The meeting included employees from the police, parking garage attendees, grounds crew, facilities staff, tailgating, recruits talks and more. It was interesting to see how in-depth the football games are and everything that needs to be conversated about before the season begins.
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