In the summer of 2024 I had the opportunity to intern with the Chicago Bears Event Operations team. While in Lake Forest, some of my responsibilities included but were not limited to general setup and tear down of Bears assets and signage, hospitality assistance and credential management, vendor and partner activation assistance, parking lot management, and security and fan flow. Training Camp, being an opportunity for many fans to watch their favorite team for free is an event of high demand, which meant at times I would work across distinct departments.

My understanding of myself, my goals, and my view of the world have never been clearer. I now know the work environment that I prefer, how I function as an individual while working on a team, where my career interests lie across the sport industry, and how different the culture is within a professional football organization. I have always been interested in the business behind the NFL, its franchises, and most importantly their impact off the field. Being around such a professional environment and the way fans reacted transformed the way I view the sport industry overall. There is a reason the NFL is one of the most successful leagues in the world and has so many fans across the globe, and now after the time I spent seeing this I can bring that experience with me towards any potential future opportunities in the sport industry.

One of the events that marked this transformation the most was our back to school community day training camp. We were excited to welcome over 20 non-profit community organizations and 15 youth and high school football teams to our first public practice. The groups had the opportunity to watch practice, participate in family-friendly activities, explore a portion of our campus, try food from local food trucks and receive autographs from some of the players. Opening our doors to Chicago and the surrounding areas, this special community day was a way to recognize and celebrate the incredible work these organizations do in their respective communities. It’s an appreciation to the strong partnership we share, working together to make a positive impact.

The back to school fair provided me with an opportunity to help out a variety of communities through sport. One of my personal goals in my career is to represent latinos and help in any way I can, and Chicago being a well known place where latino communities reside was able to provide me with this chance. Looking at the smiles of kids receiving free merchandise, as well as free utensils for a new school year is worth more than anything. Training camp is an event that fans can attend for free, which provides many with the opportunity to see their favorite players on the field even if they cannot afford a ticket for a game. Sports are bigger than competition and athletics, they create memories that can last for a lifetime.

The thought of being part of the staff and working around the facilities of one of the most historic NFL franchises ever seemed surreal to me. I am blessed to have spent this opportunity next to so many other incredibly talented interns, and learning so much from an exceptional group of leaders. I will always remember the advice and guidance during my time with the Bears, as well as the amazing people I met. An environment where one can tell everybody cares about each other was very eye opening towards how a work environment of such pressure can succeed.

Six years ago I was a high school kid in a different country telling my friends how my dream was to work in the NFL one day. Now I can proudly say I have achieved that goal, and I am not planning on stopping just yet. As I begin my senior year at The Ohio State University, I seek to continue growing both professionally and personally, and keep moving forward. By developing strong meaningful bonds with the people surrounding me, I seek to create relationships with people all over the world that will last for a lifetime. With the uncertainty regarding where I will be living in a year, in the meantime I will strive to make every second count.

This experience and the transformation of my perspective has been of tremendous value to me. As I seek to make a name for myself in the NFL and be a part of the process of making American football a more international sport, working in an environment of such caliber was essential. I have a clearer idea of how an NFL team functions from within, and the impact that a simple event such as training camp can have off the field. Sports provide people with an excuse to meet and watch a game, or have a conversation about something as simple as fantasy football even if they are complete strangers, and I believe that is what life is all about. The people, the memories, and the times we hold valuable to ourselves. What do all of these have in common? They can all be found via sports.

Hello! My name is Sarah Judson, and I am a fourth-year student majoring in Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability. This past summer, I interned with the Village of Wilmette’s Engineering and Public Works Department as their Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Intern. During my time there, I gained hands-on experience with Esri’s GIS tools, including FieldMaps, StoryMaps, and Survey123. I also had the opportunity to network with both youth and seasonal professionals, attend a Forestry Conference in Atlanta, and immerse myself in the industry.

My internship experience significantly influenced my career aspirations. I realized that working in GIS doesn’t require a traditional office setting five days a week. I discovered that I enjoy a balance of outdoor and indoor work, which keeps me from sitting all day. Additionally, I found that I am equally comfortable working independently and as part of a team. While I often collaborated with a partner on similar tasks, I also had the chance to lead my own projects, setting my own deadlines and goals. This level of flexibility and autonomy is something I highly value and hope to find in my future career.

Another significant realization during my STEP project was the vast potential within Information Systems. I previously knew that many governments use GIS for city planning, inventory management, and modeling. However, I discovered that GIS is also applied in various other fields and utilities, which I am eager to explore. For instance, during my internship, I primarily worked on a Lead Service project, dealing with lead and galvanized pipes for storm and sewer lines. Yet, GIS can also be used for mapping pollinator habitats or surveying popular biking routes. The possibilities in the world of mapping are extensive.

One key aspect of my internship that I am particularly grateful for is the StoryMaps project I led. This experience taught me to be highly independent, setting my own goals and deadlines. I collaborated with different departments to gather project details, worked with consulting companies to achieve optimal map visualizations, and even went out to photograph habitats and preserves for the website. Additionally, I conducted extensive background research to better understand the history of Wilmette and the efforts that shaped it.

Another key aspect that transformed my perspective was my understanding of office etiquette and rules. I realized that spending 40 hours a week in person was not ideal for me. Often, I found myself caught in small office chats or meetings that could have been handled via email. Additionally, working in a cubicle with office noise, like buzzing lights and typing, was not enjoyable. I need a lot of stimulation to focus, and the office environment didn’t provide that.

Lastly, I want to highlight the forestry conference I attended in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with roughly 40 other youth delegates, I immersed myself in the industry and learned about sustainable logging practices. This experience was eye-opening, as I discovered various career paths and ongoing projects worldwide. I was fortunate to gain a mentor and connect with industry leaders during the conference.

This transformation and the knowledge I’ve gained are incredibly important to me as a senior. They have provided valuable insights into what I want and don’t want to pursue after graduation. Throughout college, I never had a clear career path and often felt confused about my future. This project has given me the clarity I needed regarding my career aspirations.

Hello, my name is Tyler Dominak. I’m currently in my Senior year studying Aerospace Engineering. My project was a internship at Pratt & Whitney which is a company that makes airplane engines for both commercial companies like Boeing or Airbus and the Military. My role specifically was a Quality Engineering Intern that worked on the blades and veins of the combustor engine stationed in Hartford Ct.

This internship was a great experience because I got to for the first time live outside of Ohio. It was amazing seeing all of New England, I got to travel to Boston, New York, Portland and got to hike in New Hampshire and Vermont. I’d say my favorite experience was probably traveling to Boston and getting to see all the history the city has to offer. In terms of the internship it was great to actually get hands on experience for  my major, working with actual airfoils and people in the industry gave me a different perspective my classes couldn’t offer. I’d say the biggest thing that changed my perspective many people and different jobs it actually takes to get to the end product of a jet engine.

For people who don’t know what quality engineering is it is checking the product to make sure it matches the designers blueprint. In my case it was checking the airfoils to make sure they had the proper coating on airfoils. However, in quality there is always issues that arise that aren’t according to plan. I had to deal with a a escape which parts that we shipped to customer totaling 80,000 pieces. This led to me talking to all types of people who deal with different parts of the business.

The most interesting people were the Manufacturing Engineers. They are responsible for managing the process a airfoil has to go through from taking a ingot of steel and molding it into a completed airfoil like you see on the image to the right. As a quality engineer I had to check their process going through each steps individually to see what step could have caused a error leading to 80,000 piece potentially being not made properly. What ended up being the issue was when the bottom of the blades were getting coated the machines would sometimes forget to spin leading to the blades failing are inspections.

As a result of this escape I had to work with stress, structures, and test engineers to make sure the mistake was ok as we had already shipped 35,000 pieces to our customer. After a couple months of deliberation and testing we came to the conclusion that the pieces were acceptable and no recalling of parts was necessary.

This whole experience alone taught me so much that the classroom experience couldn’t. For my major you only the principles that a aircraft is based off of. My internship taught my how we take those principles and actually manufacture a finished product and ship it onto our airplanes that most people in the world have flown on. I’m forever grateful for this opportunity and wouldn’t change it for the world.

1. My STEP Signature Project was a summer internship I just completed working in controls engineering at Burns & McDonnell. I learned so much throughout the summer and grew more confident in myself as a working engineer. I felt such a sense of belonging at the company in their Columbus office and cannot wait to see where else I go as I enter my professional career.
2. At the beginning of my internship I thought I would just be completing meaningless tasks and not entirely enjoy myself. This assumption could not be further from the truth. I discovered my passion for controls/automation engineering, which is a combination of electrical and mechanical engineering. Controls engineering isn’t exactly taught in schools so I am extremely grateful I found my niche and passion career-wise. I worked with nine other interns, seven of them from Ohio State, and I got to make so many new connections and I now have so many familiar faces around campus. I also had an extremely supportive team that supported me and my development as a young engineer and I cannot wait to see where I go career-wise. Overall, my experience this summer gave me a new sense of confidence in my future career and lots of new connections to explore.
3. As a female electrical engineering major, I am often one of the only women in the room in most of my classes. With this, I tend to take the easy route and keep to myself, and not really talk to people. However this summer, I was surrounded by so many welcoming coworkers and other interns, and I really found myself coming out of my shell. Out of the ten interns, only three of us were women, and out of my small team in the Columbus office of four people, I was the only woman, but that didn’t matter. The company culture, AKA “Macculture,” was so uplifting and motivating I found myself starting conversations even with higher-ups in the company. This has brought me a whole new sense of confidence leading into my last year at OSU and I have noticed myself starting conversations with strangers the first few days of class and trying to make more friends.

I accepted the internship without knowing much about the role or what controls/automation engineering even was. I have since learned there’s a decent reason for that because there are a lot of NDAs involved in my department, but I have really found “my thing” this summer. Controls engineering combines electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering into one big logistical puzzle that I find to be really interesting. I kind of knew I wasn’t super interested in doing plain electrical engineering and circuits my whole life, but I figured I would get the degree and figure it out from there. This summer I have learned that controls engineering is where I belong and I cannot wait to see where I go with it.

This experience has definitely changed my life for the better already, because I am going into my senior year of college when the job market isn’t the greatest with a full-time job offer. I am extremely grateful to Burns & McDonnell for giving me a return offer and I am so glad I have found my niche. Going into my senior year, I am more confident day-to-day because of this and I am truly asking questions in my classes that might apply to my future job. Not only this, but I am the automation/controls expert for my capstone group and I cannot wait to take some of that knowledge back to my professional team at Burns & McDonnell. Overall, this experience has changed me so much for the better, and I am unbelievably grateful for STEP because I would not have been able to have this internship without STEP.

4. This change into a more confident version of myself will mean so much for my life going forward. My mentor at my internship told me he noticed a different between my shy self the first day and by the end of my internship I was going to him with changes for some of our official documents. I already feel a change in myself as a student, and I am more comfortable asking questions in class or going to office hours. I am also more confident in social settings. Maybe it’s partially because I am in my last year and trying to make the most of it but I am not afraid to start up a conversation with a stranger at a club meeting or someone sitting next to me in class. In the future, I see this new confidence helping immensely as I start a full-time job and become more of an “adult”.

1.              For my step project, I interned with Kroger as a Supply Chain – Quality Intern at a dairy processing plant. In this role I was working on a material loss project, following the milk process from the receiving bay, through the batching process, into the bottling process. I worked with the processors and plant leaders to solve issues within the milk process.

2.              My internship with Kroger was extremely transformational. Going into this internship, I had never worked a 9-5 before and wasn’t sure what it would be like to work for a large corporation. I also wasn’t sure how impactful I could be to Kroger in only 3 months. After completing my internship, I have definitely developed as a person.

                  This internship taught me that I can thrive in a corporate setting, and I can make a huge impact on the company I work for in the future. I also learned how impactful the choices I made as an intern could affect customers and people across the country. I also learned how much goes on behind the scenes to get final products onto the shelves and into consumers hands. In this internship, I also developed fundamental skills that will help me in the future.

3.              One of the most impactful events on me during my time at Kroger was when I successfully identified and solved a problem in the receiving bay. In the first month of my internship, I discovered an issue in the receiving bay, where we unloaded about 10 tankers of milk daily. I implemented my solution into the code and tracked the results over the next two months. This was very impactful on me because I got to watch as my work saved Kroger $150,000 annually. This showed me that even as a summer intern, I could have a massive effect on my company.

                By working in a dairy plant, I got to see how much every little choice made by the processors could affect people across the country. Our processors and processes had to be extremely sanitary to ensure that the products we made were safe for the consumer. If we ever lost sterilization, we had to dump product because it was unsafe for the consumer, but this made me think about what would happen if there were unethical companies out there who don’t put the consumer first. I realized how much of an effect people can have on the world when they make choices in the workplace, and I recognized how important it is to make ethical choices.

                In my time at Kroger, I developed time management skills, communication skills, and technical skills. This was the first full time job I have had, and it taught me how to manage my time effectively. I had to find time outside of work to sleep, cook food, go to the gym, and do the things I enjoy. This forced me to think about where to spend my time during the week. My communication skills improved because I had to send emails to and present my findings to people in different departments in the plant and to people at other companies. This helped me develop my professional writing skills and further developed my presentation skills. I also learned how to work our company’s processing system and how to do other tasks surrounding our milk process.

4.       This transformation was significant for my life. By not only growing professionally but as an individual I feel more prepared to join the workforce once I graduate. This experience made me more confident in my abilities and I will be applying to jobs with the knowledge that I can be a great employee for them. I also look like a more appealing candidate because I have this experience with one of the largest 20 Fortune 500 companies.

Brief Description of Project
I had a 12-week summer internship at the Federal Reserve Board, working in the IT department. I worked on an intern project involving open-source LLMs. In addition, I worked on testing and maintaining databases.
What changed?
Multiple parts of my understanding of myself and the world changed as a result of completing this STEP project. For my self, I learned about how I best fit into a professional workplace. This was my first internship. While I was aware of my hard skills and how they best fit into a workplace, I did not really know how my soft skills would function in a professional environment. I learned that I work best when working closely with a small group of people. I also learned that I need to be more proactive about communicating with people.
In addition, my STEP project changed my views on what kind of careers I would want to pursue in the future. I’m now much more interested in working for the government or some other kind of public service career. Finally, I changed my view on where I want to live later on in my life. I come from Columbus and have never really lived outside it. Living in DC for a summer helped me understand better what I value in a city and what to look for when I decide where to live in the future.

What events led to change?
There were no key events that led to the above changes but rather the overall experience. For the first change, it was motivated by the experience of the intern project. We were given a single project for all the summer interns to work on. The interns were largely responsible for managing how we were going to complete all the tasks and who was going to complete what. As a result, it was up to me to determine how to position myself where I would work best. I found myself naturally falling into a role where I was working with a handful of people on a series of complicated technical issues. This was an amazing experience. As a result, I came to understand that an environment like this would be preferable for both my enjoyment and productivity.
For the second change, I had always been most attracted to industry because I viewed it as being exciting and interesting. Working with advanced and interesting technology is something I enjoy, and my prior belief was that industry was the best way to experience this. However, working at the Federal Reserve Board convinced me that government offers many opportunities to pursue cutting-edge technologies while also providing meaningful benefit to the world. If I am ambitious and deliberate, I can have the best of both worlds: both doing something interesting to me while also doing something morally meaningful.
For the third change, I had never lived outside of Columbus for any extended period of time before this. Living in DC really made me enjoy living in a city with an extensive public transit system and numerous free public spaces to congregate. Hanging out with other interns was relatively easy even though we lived far apart from each other and very few of us had cars. There was always numerous affordable things to do. This helped me better understand the advantages of living in such a city.
Why does this change matter?
These changes matter because they will help me plan my life better and pursue things that I will enjoy. It will allow me to be more focused in searching for what kind of jobs I want and how I want to work. It will also let me understand better what cities I want to live in and where I should go after college.

My STEP Signature Project was a 3-month-long summer internship at the company, Rare Beauty Brands (RBB). There, my role was Social Media and Influencer Marketing Intern in which my responsibilities included supporting the social media team with community management, discovering relevant influencers, brand partners and UGC content creators while introducing them to RBB’s brands, creating content for social media, creating graphics for RBB’s socials, spending time on social media to stay up-to-date on current trends, assisting with sample orders for influencers and editors, helping brainstorm social media and influencer campaigns, as well as other projects and tasks as needed.

While completing my STEP Signature Project, I had several awakenings about myself, the communications field, and the beauty industry. Before taking on this internship, I only had a vague sense of what type of communications work I wanted to do, but didn’t have much real-world experience. Therefore, this summer I got the chance to explore new aspects of the communications field and figure out which ones align with my skillsets. This also gave me the opportunity to reaffirm my desire to pursue a career in the beauty industry where I can combine my personal interests and passion for creativity and visual expression with my professional goals. Despite common perceptions of the industry as superficial, I was able to gain a deeper appreciation for the strategic creativity and community-building that happens behind the scenes as well as discover how much I enjoy the dynamic nature of this field.

During my STEP Signature Project, several key experiences and interactions significantly influenced my transformation. One of the most impactful aspects was my involvement in community management. Engaging with followers, influencers, and content creators allowed me to see firsthand how important communication is in building a brand’s identity and loyalty. Furthermore, how important communication is to running a business, as social media can be such a powerful tool for shaping perceptions, building trust, and aligning the overall brand image.

Another pivotal experience was discovering and reaching out to relevant influencers and UGC (user-generated content) creators. This process helped me understand the importance of selecting individuals who genuinely align with the brand rather than just focusing on metrics such as follower count. These interactions also helped me realize how much I enjoy the dynamic and strategic side of influencer marketing and how I hope to incorporate that aspect into my future career.

Creating PR mailers to send to influencers, finding brand partners, and coming up with giveaway collaboration ideas were some other key aspects of my internship. This creative work not only allowed me to express my visual and creative skills but also challenged me to think strategically about how to communicate the brand’s message effectively. Balancing creativity with the need to engage and resonate with a specific audience not only strengthened my skillset but also my ability to contribute meaningfully to the brand’s image.

Additionally, my relationships with my two supervisors were instrumental in my growth. Their guidance and mentorship provided invaluable lessons in navigating the industry. My daily interactions with them not only helped me notice my strengths but also helped me build lifelong connections that will be beneficial as I advance in my career. Their feedback and support were extremely helpful while navigating my workload throughout the summer yet they also helped me to see the value in my work and will continue to influence my professional development.

This transformation was extremely significant and valuable to me, both personally and professionally. Gaining hands-on experience in social media and influencer marketing has not only affirmed my passion for this field but also equipped me with practical skills and insider knowledge of the beauty industry. Additionally, this experience has given me a much clearer understanding of the type of work I want to pursue after graduation and how my previous communications courses can directly apply to real-world scenarios. On a personal level, this opportunity really allowed me to grow as I became more confident in myself and my ability to contribute meaningfully to a company.

This summer for my STEP Signature Project I interned at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in the Division of Water. I worked for the Dam Safety Program along many other Environmental and Civil Engineers. I mainly assisted on site-inspections which would survey public and privately owned Dams across the state to ensure they meet regulatory status and engineering standards as dams are one of our most important types of infrastructure. I also worked to produce inundation maps through ArcGIS which show flood boundaries if a Dam were to fail.

My STEP signature project transformed my old view about the career avenues in water resources and what I can do with my career. Through my summer internship, I was able to gain hands on experience from many engineers with varying degrees and backgrounds from civil to ocean engineering. Seeing the different paths people took to end up in the same path greatly broadened by understanding of the adaptability and applicability of an engineering degree in any discipline. It also helped me gain faith in my ability to explore and grow career-wise post-graduation. I have previously fallen in the trap of seeing the first job I get post-graduation being the career niche I must stick with until retirement. However, through my STEP signature project funding my ability to pursue this internship with the Dam Safety program, I was able to see how changing passions can be pursued throughout a career even inside the same job which has given me confidence to try and pursue a variety of interests within my future career path.

Because upon my hire I had little knowledge of Dam engineering and ArcGIS, much of my time was spent working under department engineers for training and continuous education. The engineers at the department took a keen interest in explaining the mechanics and purpose behind key technical decisions made in dam inspections and comments on proposed dam and levee construction and maintenance. I would often accompany engineering teams to inspect local dams all across Ohio, all of which need to be inspected in five-year cycles. Through these inspection visits, I was able to see first hand the sheer amount of technical expertise and attention to detail that dam engineers require in a way I never would have known otherwise. They also offered a key opportunity to network and learn from professionals in the field, many of which have worked in Dam Safety engineering for over 20 years.

Dams are often referred to as the forgotten infrastructure which I profoundly agree with as they often are characterized as fundamental to both civil and environmental engineering but are minimally focused on in either educational curriculum. Dam engineering requires comprehensive knowledge in many technical areas such as hydraulics, hydrology, and structural engineering. It also requires strong social and communication skills as they would on the regular simplify complex concepts to dam owners without an engineering background on a regular basis to make sure proper maintenance gets complete. Thus, through networking with departmental engineers and performing site inspections with engineers, I was able to gain a unique understanding of potential, often underestimated, careers in water resources.

Moreover, I also got to challenge my own skills and expectations of my own abilities as I stepped into this new role. Prior to this position, I had no GIS experience, yet using it was a primary aspect of my role. Although my supervisors and co-workers were available and present, training involved teaching myself the software in a relatively short period of time so I could fulfill my role effectively and efficiently. Although challenging, learning this software on my own transformed my own confidence in myself and my ability to handle challenges in the workplace independently. I also was able to expand my technical skills to gain valuable experience as many jobs in water resources are shifting to utilize the increasingly comprehensive capabilities of Arc-GIS and Hec-RAS. Therefore, my STEP Signature project helped transformed my role not only in broadening my understanding of my career options, but also in broadening my understanding of myself.

As alluded to before, the growth I experienced due to completing my STEP Signature project is vital because it has helped me overcome a lot my career-based insecurity. Throughout my life, my passion for environmental issues has been clear to me, although, it was never abruptly clear to me how I wanted to translate that career wise. However, with the wide array of networking opportunities I have had this summer through my internship, I learned about environmental careers I did not even know existed. Although I am still not exactly sure what I want to do career wise, through my STEP Signature project, I now understand on a fundamental level how a career can ebb and flow over time which has vastly increased my confidence in my future and professional possibilities. The confidence I have gained through this internship in my own abilities as well also has been vital in pursuing my professional goals as well as I have gained more technical and soft employable skills.

All in all, my STEP Signature project has been integral in the pursuit of my personal and professional goals. Although, I may be unsure of what my future holds and what those goals fully are, the personal growth I achieved over the course of my internship will certainly serve me immensely in whatever paths I choose to pursue.

Over the summer I did a 12-week internship at Owens Corning in Toledo, OH. During the internship, I Utilized Power BI to effectively monitor and manage Azure cost/usage for optimization and reporting. I also developed a report to track Microsoft Exchange migration progress and user satisfaction.

During my internship, I hoped to discover if Technology is the sector I want to pursue as a full-time career. Currently, I have a major in accounting and a minor in Computer Information Science. During my summer sophomore year, I did an IT audit internship that allowed me to utilize both my accounting and information science background. However, I wanted to explore an opportunity that leans more heavily into the technology sector. I enjoyed the experience and relationship I gained from the internship. However, as I reflect on the internship, I realize that the career path I would like to pursue utilizes both my accounting and computer system background.

During the internship, I was tasked with creating dashboards that dealt with areas involving the cloud environment. This task allowed me to utilize my business and technical background. Also while making these dashboards I gained a lot of experience with Power BI which is the platform that I used to create the dashboards. During this task, I learned about topics regarding Azure like how the cost management structure is run and how Azure Virtual Desktop cost and usage structure works. Through this task, I was able to utilize my business and tech background.

During the internship, we had to have meetings with many professionals within the Global information system department at Owens Corning. During the meetings that I had with the professionals at Owens Corning, I got to discuss what the professionals do/what kind of tasks they complete in their positions. The positions that I thought were the most interesting were the professionals who got to do client-facing roles or roles that directly impacted the business. I had one discussion where she showed me the back end of Amazon and Home Depot descriptions. When making these descriptions there are many things that you have to consider like dimensions, highlights of the product, photos, and videos showing the product. While this is a highly technical role, I loved seeing how a technical role like this can have a direct impact on the business.

Also, during these meetings, I had a decent amount of professionals who asked me whether I wanted to go into accounting or Tech full-time. Constantly being asked that made me question what I wanted to do full-time. As previously discussed, I loved learning about how tech roles impacted the business. I also got excited when I was able to utilize my accounting/business background. Initially, going into this internship I wanted to pursue Tech as a full-time position after undergrad. However, after this internship, I realized that I would thrive most in a position that combined both my business and tech background.

This is significant for my life because now I realize that I have two passions in my life and that is Financial accounting and Tech. I now know that regardless of the position that I go into there are always elements of the two. If I decide to go into accounting I will need to know platforms like Power BI and if I decide to go into a tech position I will need to know how that influences the business. Having this internship made me realize that I will have to decide what I want to go into but regardless of what I pick there will be elements of the other within it.

My step project was an internship with the Cincinnati Reds baseball team as a part of their Sales Development Program. The program consisted of learning the foundational skills of sales for a professional sports organization. The day-to-day responsibilities included making outbound calls to fans as well as answering the inbound calls of fans that may have questions or be interested in purchasing tickets.

By working in sales, I had to become more confident in my abilities. Sales can be intimidating at first, especially since they can sometimes be unpredictable. However, through my project, I was able to better understand myself and my capabilities. I learned that my confidence and passion for sports is what will lead me to be successful. Even through the unpredictability of sales, the one factor that can remain constant is myself and my attitude.

My program with the Cincinnati Reds taught me that sales is about relationship building. Throughout my time in the program, I was able to speak to fans daily and share my excitement for the team with them. Even though revenue is a very important aspect of sales, I learned that a large part of my role as a Ticket Sales Consultant is to help fans find the best ticketing option for them. This relationship building comes through listening and knowing the product, but also being my true authentic self when engaging with the fans.

I found that when I was my true authentic self and tapped into my confidence, I was able to have the most success. One interaction I had with a fan was when they had called the inbound line with questions regarding their season ticket plan with the Reds. I helped them with a positive attitude and shared my contact information at the end of the call. I then was able to continue to build the relationship with them and be a resource throughout the season. Anytime they had an issue or question they felt comfortable enough to call and ask me directly. However, this relationship building of trust between myself and the fan, did not only come through talking about tickets. I was able to get to learn more about them as well as them learn about me. For example, they shared that they often come to games with the grandchildren, so we often talked about family.

To confidently help fans and build worthwhile relationships such as the one I just mentioned, I first had to better understand myself. I had to reflect on what makes me my true authentic self. When I approach others as my true authentic self, am I then able to be more confident and showcase my enthusiasm.

I will be able to carry the skills that I learned from my time with the Reds with me for the rest of my career. Not only did the program provide me with the knowledge and understanding to be successful in the sports industry, but it also helped me to grow as a person overall. I now understand that being my true authentic self is not only the key to success in sales, but the key to succeed in life.