This summer I had the unique opportunity to spend 12 weeks in Beaverton, OR as an undergraduate Digital Product Creation intern with Nike, Inc. at their world headquarters under the Consumer Creation Operations function developing both personal and professional experiences along the way. This incredible experience was shared with 293 interns from around the nation as we participated in both internal and external networking events, fireside chats with executive leaders, competitive challenges in innovation, and the chance to hear from the greatest athletes supported by the brand.
The sportswear industry has always been an unexplored passion given my student-athlete background representing Men’s Cross Country and Track & Field here at Ohio State — this summer was the chance to undertake an internship like no other where our consumer was every athlete, and if you have a body you are an athlete in the vision of Nike, Jordan, and Converse. Until this point, I’d never felt the same excitement to come into the office in prior internships as I did this summer, and much of that was due to the amazing product and athletes that we get work with each and everyday of this internship.
To describe the culture at Nike, Inc. would be an environment of work hard, play hard. The world headquarter campus is unlike no other with every athletic facility one can ask for, unlimited resources to encourage an athletic lifestyle, and countless employees to train with at any time of the year. Throughout the internship program I built new, genuine relationships with many interns and FTEs, delivered on an automated data management process for my team to implement immediately, and proudly represented the Jordan Brand as one of four finalists in our intern combine event.
Through coffee chats, virtual introductions, and even campus walks I’ve left the summer with an incredibly talented network of Nike innovators and athletes which have broadened my understanding on the career possibilities and growth opportunities within the ever-growing sportswear industry.
The combine event consisted of 188 interns split amongst 22 teams between the Nike, Jordan, and Converse brands as we were challenged to develop new business ideas for the company. Having just two days to deliver and compete against the various teams in front of an impressive judge panel, my team was fortunate enough to qualify for the finalist round where we presented again but this time on the theatre stage that most employees never get the chance to do during their career at the company.
This culmination of events, interactions, relationships, and activities during my twelve weeks transformed the intentionality of my career decisions and allowed me to finally experience having an opportunity that I felt passionate and excited about. My standard going in had already been quite high in comparison to prior summer internships, but Nike completely blew away my expectations and I could not be more thankful to have been one of the interns in this year’s diverse 2023 class.
The future academic, personal, and professional goals have drastically changed because of this summer STEP experience and my focus now lies in entering the sportswear industry following graduation while researching graduate programs to further enhance the necessary skills to excel in this field of work.