Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Ticket Operations

Nick
Major: Sport Management Provide customer service for complaints, sales, or unique situations, sell single game tickets, assist in game operations, and setup suites/premium seats before the game.

Muskegon Lumberjacks

Keigan
Major: Sport Management I tagged along with the head equipment manager and helped up set up the room for practices and gamedays, helped repair player's equipment, took inventory of apparel and equipment, and helped with doing the laundry of the athletes and coaches.

GVSU Marketing and Fan Development

Brian
Major: Sport Management For just about every sport, as an intern staff, we did very similar tasks including stadium music, game operations, video and scoreboard operations, camera operations, and much more. Football season was pretty wild and hectic, but it was fun the whole time. Most games started at 7 pm, but we interns and other staff had to be there at noon to set everything up for tailgating, tickets, t-shirt giveaways, and communicate with sponsors. Most games had over 10,000 in attendance, and a big factor in that is student attendance as our student tickets are free. During the game, we have to run different promotions at different times of the game that are clearly outlined in the script we get hours before. These promotions include operating the t-shirt cannon and shooting it into the crowd, finding students to do games on the field during media timeouts, playing certain music, and whatever else we needed to do to make the event more than just a football game. This year we broke our attendance record for a home football game with over 17,000 at our football stadium to watch us play our West Michigan Rival Ferris State, who was ranked #1 at the time and we were #5

Game Operations

Maggie
Major: Sport Management In the Grand Valley athletic department I worked on various tasks. My day looked different every time I was interning. Some days I would work at one of the sporting events. I often set up and tore down for the basketball games. I also did track and field set up and tear down. That involved moving all of the equipment in the right place and making sure everything was ready for the meet. For the basketball games I would do various tasks. Some days I would make sure the refs got to the game on time, or sometimes I would walk the team to the locker room. Every week I would go into the office to take care of various tasks. I would be in charge of doing facility checks and putting in maintenance orders if anything needed to be fixed. I made sure that all of the packages in the field house got delivered to the right owner. I would take photos at different games and manuals that student workers use for various sporting events. Those manuals were the reference point that the workers would use.

SportsQuest Intern

Nathan
Major: Sport Management I have helped hold numerous baseball/softball tournaments and showcases. Provided insight for Sports Quest members on activities unique to the complex. Helped clean and manage the facility on a daily basis. Have provided pitching knowledge to various athletes through lessons and practices.

Athletic Director Intern

Lucas
Major: Sport Management At Lakeshore I learned how to run a successful High School athletic event. I was given many tasks that varied from day to day. I got the opportunity to work in the office to learn the daily roles and tasks that an Athletic Director would encounter. Each day I was presented with a new assignment that would help me learn the different roles you would be doing or giving as an Athletic Director.

Athletic Intern

austin
Major: Sport Management I was in charge of game set up, media relations, game tear down, overseeing the ticketing operation, I helped with field maintenance, and they just started a new football conference so some of the tasks I had included growing that as well.

Athletic Director Internship

Andrew
Major: Sport Management At my time at Forest Hills Northern, I was involved in many activities and projects. I went to every football game to help with management and operations, and learned what it takes to put on a successful event. In the office, I entered in data from past All-State athletes and championship teams into the schools new touchboard. There were hundreds of entries, so that kept me very busy. I got to experience conference meetings, phone calls, and other daily things an Athletic Director does on a normal day.

Sportsquest Family Center Intern

Christian
Major: Sport Management Throughout the internship, some of the tasks have included social media, marketing, creating training plans, cleaning and organizing the facility, and event planning and preparation.

Athletics Department Intern

Mitchell
Major: Sport Management Tasks/Projects include creating sports schedules, digital work on the grchristianeagles website, event supervision, facility work including: preparation, inspection, and operation. With a lot of odd jobs falling inbetween.

Van Andel Arena Ticket Sales

Emma
Major: Sport Management Day of show or event, you would come in count your cash drawer and log into their sales system. Once doors open you will be helping with customer services issues and ticket pick ups.

Event Coordinator

Emma
Major: Sport Management Day to day task included cleaning and restocking the club house, answering the phones, checking in people for tee-times and organizing the golf carts. On weekends there were more outings therefore you had to help set up and take down the outing, make sure everyone is playing a at a smooth pace.

GVSU Club Sports Supervisor

Tristen
Major: Sport Management As a Student Supervisor for Club Sports, I handled a vast variety of different tasks required to administrate a successful and meaningful program. The tasks involved ranged from administrative to event management and planning. During my administrative days, I worked on streamlining processes regarding travel and vehicle rentals, front-end web development, and scheduling other student staff throughout the semester. During event management shifts, I would spearhead primary setup for numerous different club competitions. This involved getting gear from storage, field setup, operating the scoreboard, and ensuring GVSU policies were being followed.

GVSU Game Operations Intern

Kyle
Major: Sport Management As a game operations intern, I was required to attend majority of GVSU athletic events. During these events I would have a variety of tasks that needed to be completed. I would setup and teardown the entire event, but during the event I would be a team host, officials host, suites host, scoreboard operator, mopper, ball crew and so many other jobs. I also completed multiple office hours where I would attend meetings, manage the fields, setup schedules, laundry and any other tasks that might need to be done.

Experiencing the sport recreation industry in Grand Rapids

Benjamin
Major: Sport Management Some tasks I was assigned since becoming league conveyer were assisting in interviewing, hiring and onboarding our league coordinators, who are the life blood of our leagues and are curial to the player experience. I was also in charge of general customer service and helping move our rebranding process forward.

GVSU Sports Marketing

Joanna
Major: Sport Management I assisted in in-game promotions for different sports, researched organizations to contact to be involved/recognized at events, and was responsible for playing music during events.

Coopersville Recreation Intern

Hayden
Major: Sport Management Over the summer, I took place in the mini sport camps where kids were dropped off for 4-5 hours, 3 times a week for 5 weeks, and I was assigned to come up with tasks and activities for the kids to partake in. Other interns were there to help me as well, but we divided up the kids based on their age group and ran different activity stations throughout the day. Lunch was provided and activities were run before and after lunch. During the fall I took place in field preparation, as well as over watching games and managing the scoreboards during the games. I was in charge of making a schedule for Matt with all the times of the games on them, as well as making a flyer for an event that takes place in December. These games were soccer, flag football, volleyball, and sideline cheer.

Athletic Director Internship

Michael
Major: Sport Management Some things I would do at Greenville each week would be like, office work. I would learn how to report other athletic directors dates and times to confirm for events at home or away. I would make bus schedule for the kids to be pick up and drop off to the bus garage. I would organize contracts and make sure they were paid off or if needed to be paid. Outside of the school or even at events I would: Do Game day event coordinator like set up for football, or get gates set up in our concession booths. Get radios set up. Also make sure refs knew where the locker rooms were. Ask for food or water for them after the game. I would go around the stadium and make sure there was no drama like fights. I have helped with football, volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, and wrestling. I have been to some MHSAA meetings and listening in, also been to some admin meetings in the school system. Did some retreats with the kids and also a leadership conference. Some task at Greenville I did were setting up and take down for events. Making sure we had everyone working events. Taking care of people and making sure they got food or drinks. I did phone calls. Overall throughout my internship, it would be doing jobs that my boss would let me learn. I would take everything for granted because this could be some day. I would be in charge of some things like setting up for game day events and printing our programs for fans. I would stay from the begining to the end till fans leave the building. Also in the office, I would ask to do projects and I have caught up a lot of work for them and they are weeks ahead of schedule because I would get them done fast and right. If something they needed done, they knew where to find me.

Parks and Rec Intern

Austin
Major: Sport Management I prepared all of the athletic fields for the spring/summer events, and I helped plan all of the Covid-19 testing for this year. I also designed and updated the signs for the athletic fields, and I helped facilitate the events as well.

Loyola Ramblers Athletic Internship

Franchesca
Major: Sport Management My internship included learning more about what each position is responsible for within the athletic department, and completing various business administrative projects throughout the summer. My three largest projects were putting together the 2020-2021 athletic department calendar, creating a 'Wikipedia' of up-to-date athletic alumni information, and conducting a research summary for a new ticket sales system. My supervisor and other staff were always willing to help if I had any questions, and point me in the right direction to get things done efficiently. I appreciate that they trusted me to work independently and get things done on time with high quality work.

Internship

Joshua
Major: Sport Management While completing my internship for the Wyoming Wolves Athletic Department, I was in charge of mass scheduling for different sports and the corresponding conference championships and tournaments through MHSAA. I was also able to assist some Gameday preparation duties for basketball during the course of my internship.

Associate Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete Welfare & Development

Megan
Major: Sport Management I learned very valuable information from Mr. Moore. Different tasks that I completed were NCAA Bid Portal Submissions, Laker Impact Series Flyers, Budget for NCAA Bid Portal, Travel aspects for NCAA Bid Portal, GVSU Student-Athlete Welfare and Development Brochure, Social Media Production, Senior Spotlights, Careers In Public Service Fair, GVSU Job Listings Document, Varsity Jackets Spreadsheet, Listened on a conference call, GLIAC Track & Field Championships and other tasks.

Athletic Administration Intern at Holland Public Schools

Brian
Major: Sport Management Assisted head Athletic Director at on-site events and during school days Involved in game management, crowd control, and event preparation Verified athlete eligibility, officials scheduling, and tournament rosters Helped manage MHSAA state tournaments Assistant coach of Holland High School junior varsity baseball team

GVSU Athletics Internship

Matthew
Major: Sport Management -Enhance fan game day experience through implementation of game and event promotion -Strategically promote athletic events to the local community, primarily students on campus -Develop relationships with local partners and sponsors -Liaison between the athletic department and on and off campus organizations -Work with other departments to create a seamless gameday experience

First Tee Program Intern

Katie
Major: Sport Management During my internship I was given many different tasks to complete. Excel spreadsheets and transferring numbers over, addressing/ mailing letters, cold calls, emailing school districts, set up/take down/running golf sessions, organizing equipment donations, creating social media content, brainstorming creative ideas, and creating First Tee flyers. I also was working hands on with the students delivering the Life Skills Experience.