Ops Never Stops
Mathew
Experience Information
Employer: Kalamazoo Growlers
Job Title: Stadium Operations
Major: Sport Management
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
The Kalamazoo Growlers is a Collegiate summer league team in the North Woods League. It is a smaller organization which is nice because you meet and get to know everyone. Our motto is "Fun makes a difference" where we truly make it a show for the audience every home game. Win or lose, the Kalamazoo Growlers strive to make sure the fans have fun.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
In the first two weeks we were instructed to move a full metal gazebo on top of one of our concession stand outlets. The gazebo would then become our "Zipline Concessions" where we would sell beer and send the beer down a zipline to the customer. My day to day tasks would be setting up my areas on game day. Making sure everything is clean, set up correctly and having all food prepared for game day. Also, I was incharge of the part time staff that was assigned to my areas for the day and also volunteers when we had them.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Some skills I learned through this experience is how to delegate to make sure everything gets done that needs to be done. Also, I improved my organizational skills, adapting skills and scheduling skills. I've learned how to properly run hospitality areas and also the main concession stand. Finally, I learned how to prepare for sold out crowds to make sure that we are not rushing around and feeling swamped.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this internship was "Mac n Cheese Fest". Which is a festival we host where we have mac n cheese vendors come in and hand out their mac n cheese. We also have a bunch of beer outlets as well. Lots of people come out to these festivals so it was really cool to be apart of. I also traveled to Fort Wayne Indiana for another Mac n Cheese fest at the Tincaps stadium. This was also a really cool experience because their stadium is an actual full sized stadium.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience has shown me that I enjoy working in sport but maybe not in this department. I enjoy everything I do but I can not see myself doing this for the rest of my life.
Internship Format
In Person