Job & Internship

May 2009 Internship Spotlight

Name: Jessica Sweers
Major: Journalism
Company: Des Moines Buccaneers

Duties: I was a public relations and game night intern, so I had a lot of different duties. One of my main job duties was to write a media guide recapping the previous weekends game and our upcoming weekend. I worked on game nights and evening promotions. Working with the Buccaneers I did a little bit of everything from creating databases to selling tickets and writing stories.

Most Memorable Experience: My most memorable experience is getting the players to sign the player trading cards for the season ticket holders. I enjoyed working with the players, but they are hard to handle. The Buccaneer players are ages sixteen through twenty, and so they always turned a boring task into something entertaining. Because they are so young and only really think about girls and hockey it was difficult getting them into the office and signing the cards on time. It was tricky, but it was a nice break from the normal office work I did.

Special Contribution: One thing that I did was create player biographies for the website. I had the players fill out questionnaires, and I turned their answers into a short paragraph for the website. It took a lot of time because of player trades and trying to track down the players. It really helped me get to know the players, and it made it easier for me to market the team.

Advice to Future Interns: Don’t be afraid to talk about your ideas. There are a lot of different ideas I had, but I was scared to bring them up to my boss. Eventually I brought it up and the office made some of the changes. It’s important to remember that they hired you for a reason, and that you have a lot to offer to the program. Sometimes they really appreciate it because you can offer a new spin on an old program.

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