Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Hudsonville Athletics

Naomi
Major: Sport Management I collaborated with the athletic director on various daily responsibilities, including ensuring referee presence at games, offering hospitality services, managing events and games, and conducting research of the competitive landscape within the OK Conference

Trane Technologies Engineering Co-op Rotation 2

Matthew
Major: Biomedical Engineering I was in charge of keeping building graphics updated for the control projects, and creating or ordering new ones when they were needed. I also worked on a few projects to develop controls for buildings, and helped out the other engineers with drawings for their projects. Finally, I was in charge of handing the parts that came in for all of our projects and makings sure they were documented and stored correctly.

Coopersville Recreation Admin

Connor
Major: Sport Management I had to help set up equipment at the beginning of the season as well as help with any errands Matt needed help with. I also had to referee basketball games. We make suer that all events and practices are running smoothly.

Coopersville Rec

Diamond
Major: Sport Management While doing my internship for the Fall sports I started as an assistant coach for the 3rd and 4th grade girls' basketball team as well as a referee for the 1st and 2nd boys and girls' basketball teams. For Spring sports I helped with Soccer and Softball with setting up and assisting Matt in anything he needed. Last I also helped with TikTok by posting videos and showcasing the kids' talents.

Grand Rapids Gold Internship Experience

Sam
Major: Sport Management In this job, you are expected to complete game day related tasks. These tasks ranged from ticket sales, merchandise sales, security, team assistance, and promotional assistance. Along with this, interns helped support both operations and marketing teams during Grand Rapids Gold game days.

Events Intern at West Michigan Sports Commission

Alyssa
Major: Sport Management I worked on a variety of projects throughout my time as an intern. A lot of my projects included looking up information and putting it into Excel for my supervisors to use. I also updated our events website and the PlayEasy website to make sure they had all of our current events on them. I worked on the budget for March Madness bids, called companies, answered emails, tracked hotel information, marketed events, and worked with event directors to meet their needs. I created flyers on Canva to share information about events and posted about them on PlayEasy. I also revamped their volunteer network by contacting different groups and sharing sign-up information.

GVSU Athletics Internship

Kenleigh
Major: Sport Management In this role, my main responsibilities include organizing contracts and inventory, assisting in fulfillment of contracts, and documentation of contracts fulfillment. Organizing contracts is taking the agreed upon terms and inputting them into the database. We later access this information to identify fulfillment tasks to be completed. Fulfilling the contracts includes everything at an athletic event with a partner logo on it. This may include signage, T-shirts, promotions, video board, roster cards, etc. New fulfillment is not needed every year for some things, such as signage that can be reused every year. Things like T-shirts for a specific giveaway or marketing campaigns for a sponsored event are made for that specific occasion. Lastly, documentation of contracts is provided to sponsors as a proof of performance. This process is important in communicating our team's effort of fulfilling the contract to the sponsor. Documentation efforts are also essential to ensuring a positive experience and relationship with sponsors, leading to a better opportunity for renewal. Although these are the big three responsibilities, I like to always be willing to assist in any other areas. For example, this fall I learned how to operate broadcasts for athletic events. This included setting up and feeding the livestream to Flosports while managing the cameras and score board during the game. Along with broadcasting, I will frequently assist in tasks in the marketing department, administration, or merchandising.

Social Media and Marketing

McKenzie
Major: Advertising & Public Relations -Assist in managing social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter -Create, publish and distribute social media content -Monitor and engage with the community by responding to comments/messages -Contribute to the planning, and execution of marketing campaigns to promote upcoming events. -Work closely with the marketing team to brainstorm ideas, and contribute to campaign planning. -Assist with scheduling of volunteers and communicate the responsibilities and duties - Faciliate various administrative tasks related to marketing and communications

AmeriCorps Internship!

Victoria
Major: Criminal Justice My primary task in volunteer services is to provide additional support to all programs and clients. I work with community partners, individual donors/volunteers and case managers to secure services and material goods for clients. I also do other community engagement tasks, such as grant writing and event planning.

BI Internship at VanData Consulting

Grace
Major: Computer Science a)VanData Blog: Spearheaded the development of the VanData Blog, establishing it as a prominent platform for sharing industry insights, thought leadership, and innovative solutions in the field of data science and analytics. b)VanData Onboarding Platform: Led the initiative to develop a new platform for streamlining the onboarding process of new interns and employees. Implemented a user-friendly interface and comprehensive resources to facilitate smooth integration into the company culture and workflows, ensuring a positive and productive start for newcomers. c)Database Migration and Warehousing for clients of VanData Consulting specializing in cold chain packaging and industrial insulation. d)Business Intelligence Training: Conducted comprehensive training sessions to equip new interns and employees with essential skills and knowledge in business intelligence tools and methodologies. These sessions covered topics such as data analysis, report generation, and dashboard development, empowering interns to contribute effectively to projects and initiatives within the organization. e)Onboarding New Employees and Interns: Led the onboarding process for incoming employees and interns, overseeing orientation sessions and providing guidance on company policies, procedures, and culture. Implemented strategies to ensure seamless integration into teams and projects, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment conducive to professional growth and development.

Coopersville Rec 24

Jeffery
Major: Sport Management I oversaw practices, help set up, tear down practices and games along with reffing.

Professional Sports Experience

Ben
Major: Sport Management A game day intern can have several different tasks throughout the season. - Rebound and Mopping: Rebound for players during pre-game warmups/halftime. Mop the floor during the game (when players fall, something spills, etc.) -Bench Security/Bench Assist: Assure players are safe from fans, and escort players in and out of tunnels when ejected. Bench assist requires you to help the coaching staff/players with anything they need. (Towels, water, athletic training equipment, warmups, etc.) - Tunnels: Throw T-shirts to the crowd after every made 3-pointer, assist with giveaways, crowd engagement, etc.

Non-Profit Organization

Taylor
Major: Sport Management During my time thus far, I have edited on the TransplantNATION magazine, created social media content, and other tasks related to preparing for the Transplant Games of America, like registration, special event tickets, etc.

GVSU Internship

Brody
Major: Sport Management I helped execute promotions during games, along with assisting in giveaways and other types of promotions. I would help assist with setting up events, as well as making sure certain aspects of sponsors were fulfilled correctly. At other times, I would operate music or the video board during events in correlation to the game or promotions. Before certain events, I would assist in promoting them by passing out flyers or working on getting shirts and other items prepared.

Zeeland Natatorium Internship

Jamahl
Major: Sport Management My internship was located at the Zeeland Natatorium at Zeeland West High School. I was the intern for the pool director. This meant that I was not only helping maintain and run the natatorium, but I also assisted in running the multiple teams that ran out of the pool. I handled the scheduling and communications for the teams. I also was involved in marketing and various projects to grow the teams. I was primarily in charge of the Zeeland Age Group Team. I was in charge of organizing all of the team's practices and major events as well as submitting all of the team's entries as well.

Game Day Internship

Roman
Major: Sport Management I have done all of those positions and it has been a great experience.

Grand Rapids Griffins & Rise Internship

Brianna
Major: Sport Management On game days as a Corporate Sales Intern, I had to do the following duties: Pre-Game -Hang sponsorship banners -Set up Kids Club -Help set up concourse tables -Prepare T-shirts for giveaways -Place coupons with appropriate sponsors in the correct spots During Game -Escort guests to their table on the concourse -Help with set up for player entrance -Throw T-shirts -Hand out coupons -Work Kids Club Post-Game -Teardown all things necessary On days with no games, I would complete tasks such as completing donation requests, updating Kids Club, preparing game day schedules, & more.

Salem Athletics Intern

Ryan
Major: Sport Management One of the projects that I did was on a program called GoFan. This program allows you to track rosters, scheduling for teams, player eligibility etc. The main task that I did on here was update rosters transfer them onto the website. Another task that I did involved pay to play. All families must pay a couple hundred dollars to have a student athlete play a sport for the school. I checked, updated, and contacted the families who had not payed on time.

My Experience in Club Sports

Brendan
Major: Sport Management I was an event supervisor so I was in charge of helping run events to make sure that setup, scoring, and takedown all went smoothly. This is my 2nd year with Club Sports so I also helped in training our new workers on how these events are run. I also helped out anywhere I could in the office.

Student-Athlete Welfare & Development and Athletic Compliance Student Assistant

Scott
Major: Sport Management During this internship I helped manage the compliance of 650 student-athletes, made sure all Name, Image, and Likeness deals were compliant with NCAA, GVSU, and State of Michigan bylaws, keep the websites up to date, and helped students find resources to land a job or internship.

Intern At Howie's Hockey Tape

Tyler
Major: Sport Management Cold calling, finding and adding new prospects, emailing/texting with prospects, trying to make sales to new prospects, continuing to check up on new customers, managing over 1000 prospects.

Student Assistant

Matthew
Major: Sport Management Help run scout team for the defense and any task that our Director of football Operations needs.

Ride-alongs at MSP

Jordan
Major: Criminal Justice This internship was more of an observational one. I didn't really complete any tasks or projects but I witnessed them being completed. During the ride-alongs, we made traffic stops, helped with crashes, tagged abandoned vehicles, made arrests, transported prisoners to jails, and attended to wellbeing checks, suicide calls, and domestic violence/disturbance calls.

Data Analyst

Catherine
Major: Computer Science My primary responsibilities include curating research papers, developing a user-friendly AIchatbot, enhancing its functionality with NLP techniques, integrating it into our data analysis workflow, leading the development of an in-house data analysis system, collaborating with cross-functional teams, conducting user training sessions, and continually improving both the chatbot and data analysis system based on user feedback.

Cascade Hills Country Club Outdoor Operations

Drew
Major: Sport Management I was involved with everything related to Golf. Managing the range, operating various golf course equipment, leading efforts in the bag room and cart garage, organizing weekly men's and women's leagues, overseeing invitationals and tournaments, and communicating with every level of the organization were some of the primary tasks I was assigned with throughout the summer.