Written by: David Dapaah-Afriyie

My name is David Dapaah-Afriyie and I am a rising senior at the University of Connecticut, from Attleboro, MA. This past summer, I was fortunate enough to work at Brown University Athletics, as an intern with the Compliance and Facility Operations departments.

My internship opportunity was a product of timely networking at the Sport Management's Annual Career in Sport Night and subsequent interactions with alumnus, Mr. David Longo, who is the current Providence College Assistant Athletic Director for Facilities and Game Day Management.  Mr. Longo introduced to me Ms. Ann Dwyer and Ms. Bridgette Cahill from Brown’s Facility Operations and Compliance departments and as a result, which led to them creating and co-supervising an individualized multi-faceted internship for me this summer.

This in-depth, hands-on experience, with both facility operations and compliance duties allowed me to engage in—and be exposed to—a myriad of day-to-day assignments that a job within each department entails. This high-activity experience was intellectually stimulating and satisfying: I witnessed how to seamless transition from game-field preparation and supervision to database analysis and synchronization; I was consistently presented with novel problem-solving situations, which I can use towards future decision-making; and I continued my development in professional transferrable skills which broaden my perspective concerning a significant sector of the sport industry.

My internship with Brown provided an incredibly opportunity to further develop my foundational knowledge, as I was able to become intimately aware of collegiate operations to a certain extent. As an individual that seeks to have a well-rounded grasp of the sport industry in totality, being granted the opportunity to become immersed within a realm of the industry is something I will cherish forever.

Written by: Becca Lindblad

My name is Becca Lindblad and this summer I was the Recreation Intern at the Park District of Highland Park in Illinois,IA, which serves a community of 30,000 people. I was very fortunate to obtain this internship because of a connection with the executive director.

I had a very valuable experience which provided me with the opportunity to interface with all levels within the District. Each week I was exposed to a new department in the organization and received first hand knowledge and understanding of their in-house operations including recreation, athletics, camps, special events, fitness, aquatics, golf, administration, finance, marketing, registration, HR, and IT. This internship experience completely took me outside my comfort zone and challenged me in ways that I have never been challenged before. I learned how to be flexible, communicate effectively with different types of people, and gained confidence in skills in new areas. Some highlights include helping assist with their Fourth of July 5K race and getting to be apart of the opening of their brand new golf course. Summer is a busy time for park districts and this experience definitely kept me on my toes!

This internship not only taught me how a park district operates but also the type of work environment that I want to pursue after school. The park district had a very positive culture, strong sense of teamwork and collaboration, and an overall environment where people want to work together and help each other.

Written by: Ivy Kim

My name is Ivy Kim and after being born in California, I grew up in Taiwan. This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work at a startup sport organization, Asia League. Asia League is headquartered in Hong Kong, China. Its core mission is to provide a platform “to raise the level of basketball in Asia through the delivery of high-level club to club basketball tournaments, featuring teams from the top leagues in Asia: CBA (China), KBL (Korea), B. LEAGUE (Japan), PBA (Philippines), SBL (Chines Taipei), and ABL” during the off-season. Asia League is dedicated to enhancing a well-rounded opportunity not only for leagues and teams but also for coaches and referees, which allow them to exchange skills with the intention to support basketball development. Nonetheless, they commit to continual collaborations among leagues, teams, and government stakeholders. This year, Asia League expanded the scale of the tournament and closely collaborated with the Sports Bureau of Macao SAR Government while organizing Summer Super 8 this past July and The Terrific 12 in September.

During my internship, I was involved with many tasks across the board from event management to basketball operations. I assisted in organizing the Summer Super 8 from preparation, execution, all the way to post-event evaluation. Despite the challenge of potential language and cultural barriers, I successfully managed all the equipment in the locker rooms and refreshments in the media center: from ordering, handling payments, to final delivery with the local vendors of Macau. I led the on-site operations, managed inventory, and assisted scoreboard personnel and game commissioners with team rosters and statistics sheets. The week-long tournament allowed me to interact with people from different sectors and backgrounds, all of who collaborated together to make this event possible.

I truly felt that my role as intern was just as important as any other full-time position. Despite the long hours and countless emails and phone calls, I was prepared for the worst and ready to take on any unexpected challenge. I learned to voice my concerns and shared suggestions during meetings.  I appreciated the organization's emphasis on looking out for each other under all circumstances and maintained respectful relationships with collaborating staff and organizations. Ultimately, with all the people I met and tasks I managed during this three-month journey, I plan to carry all these valuable lessons into my senior year at UConn and beyond.

Written by: Alex Rubinfeld

As a rising senior at the University of Connecticut, I made it my goal to find a summer internship that helped challenge me and introduce me to the operations side of the sports industry.  Growing up in Mendham, NJ, I made my New York sports-passion a starting point when looking for internships.  While I did not limit my search to the New England/Tri-State Area, I wanted to find an internship that was located in a big market like New York.  With New York in mind, I came across an application for a summer internship program with an organization called Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment.  Through a fellow Sport Management student relationship with Paul Wetteman, I learned more about the organization's culture and what type of work that I might be getting into, based on what he learned during his internship experience, last summer.  After having an over-the-phone interview with the Talent Acquisition Manager in Human Resources, I was later accepted into the program and would be working in the facility operations department.

Over the course of the ten week program, I was able to gain a plethora of insight from hands-on work, advice from supervisors, and the overall transition of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment to BSE Global. Besides the change of the company title, the organization moved their office location from Metrotech to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which is located a floor under HSS Nets Training Center. Though, I never saw the old office space, I could tell that the new move brought about a culture change to the organization and its employees.  Transitioning from the cubicle-type space to a modern, open and social space created a friendly environment and proved to be beneficial to my experience in networking/communicating with various departments.

In my position, I was required to oversee and maintain the integrity of the HSS Nets Training Center and BSE Global, which required me to walk around the facility checking the building and equipment for any possible damages or potential harm that may arise in the future.  It was the perfect way to pay close attention to detail as one little problem can lead to a complaint or severely damage the building.  Along with this, I also had the opportunity to assist in the managing of a few of the events staged in BSE Global and HSS Nets Training Center.  In this process, I helped set up, attend to issues or roles during the event, and helped break down the event once it was all over.  The process was very similar to the topics of event conceptualization/planning discussed in Danielle Upham’s course for event management.

With the opportunity to work these events and move throughout the facility, I was able to network with people ranging from personnel in each department to members of the Brooklyn Nets’ and BSE Global’s front office.  Aside from that, our program gave all the interns the opportunity to hear from department heads each week in a speaker series, in which they told us their path to where they are today, and gave us the opportunity to ask them any questions we came up with.  This experience gave me a sense of what working in this industry is like.  And at the same time, I was able to discover the benefit of learning how to take care of a facility on a day-to-day basis.  This summer internship in facility operations has prepared me with many lessons for managing the daily tasks of life, along with the potential of gaining access into fields other than facility operations.  It has opened up my life to a whole new development of ideas, while giving me an enhanced sense of time management, attention to detail, and the conceptualization of various events.

Written by: Olivia Anderson

My name is Olivia Anderson and I am from Fairfield, CT. This summer I had an intern with Westport Parks & Recreation located in Westport, CT, as the Sports Director at Camp Compo, which is located at Compo Beach.  I began this internship in June and worked through August, alongside the program manager, Cyndi Palaia.

During my time in the office, I created manuals, flyers, scheduled field trips, and placed equipment, supply, and uniform orders for summer programming. My task was to get everything ready for the summer camps and only had about one month to make sure everything was ready to go. I called multiple places where we would go on field trips and confirmed dates and details with them. Additionally, I had to schedule buses, create theme and special event days, and organize the contact information for employees. During camp, we would go on field trips around Connecticut and also had on-site events such as hosting a pizza truck, waterslide, carnival day, a magician and a comedy show. Throughout the summer, I learned that it is difficult to work alongside those who are very different from you; however, the main focus is to appreciate what is valued most about the job, and for me that was making sure the kids had fun.  I was motivated to make sure we would have a successful summer. 

I am very fortunate to be able to work for Westport Recreation part-time this fall to begin to learn more about program management within recreation. Although I am not positive if I will take on a future within recreation, I have learned that I love working with youth sport and hope to find something within the sport industry; however, I will not limit my options. I am looking forward to the opportunity to continue to work for Westport Recreation, as it will give me more experience working in and outside of the office, and I will learn a multitude of skills that will further enhance my resume for my future endeavors.