SHOOTING FOR THE STARS: MY JOURNEY TO WORKING IN PRO SPORTS
When I started school at NMU, I had dreams to work for NASA. Knowing I could see the Northern Lights in Marquette and get a Bachelor’s in Physics, NMU quickly became my dream school. But while I’ve always loved the night sky and learning what’s beyond our atmosphere, I quickly realized that I loved astronomy as a hobby and not as a job. As I thought through other careers, I discovered that I could combine my passions of writing and communicating with my love for sports through the Public Relations degree at Northern. I switched my major with the intent to work in professional sports communications and am now getting my start in my dream career.
Read more below
I remember my first day of 'Intro to Public Relations' and being told that the most important thing was to start getting field experience immediately, so I jumped right into the job search. I was grateful that NMU had various opportunities for me to get relevant experience. In 2019, I was presented with the opportunity to help run the official social media accounts for NMU’s Men’s Ice Hockey team. My main task revolved around in-game posting, most specifically on Twitter and sometimes Instagram and Facebook. For two seasons, I live-tweeted every game from the team’s account. As someone who grew up in an ice rink, I felt at home from day one on the job. While I spent my weekends in the rink, I spent the rest of the week running the social media accounts for NMU Rec Sports. Bouncing between the Berry Events Center and the PEIF, I knew I had found a career path that would never fail to make me happy.
When I graduated from Northern in May 2021, I wasn’t quite sure what my next step was. But after a lot of job applications, silence and rejections, that plan changed when I finally got a call in June 2021 that the Detroit Lions were going to hire me as a full-time intern for the 2021 NFL season. I couldn’t believe that my dreams were coming true so quickly. Within a week, I moved back to my hometown in the metro-Detroit area and walked into Ford Field on a sunny July day to begin my time with the team.
I worked in the Corporate Communications department, helping tell the story of the team off of the football field. Our main tasks revolved around working with the local Detroit media, drafting and providing press materials and acting as on-site media contacts at events around the community. From training camp, to Season Launch Week, to a full season lasting until January and everything in between, I spent my days helping create media buzz around what happens when the players aren’t suited up. I also had the opportunity to do these same tasks for other events associated with the stadium itself, such as concerts, community events and college football games. I found a home within sports corporate communications, loving the opportunity to help humanize the players, team and organization as a whole and help show that sports are so much more than what happens in-game.
From that first day I walked into Ford Field, I spent every day beyond grateful that I was starting my dream career. As I continue working my way through corporate communications in the professional sports world, I will never forget my time at NMU and how it shaped me as a person and a young professional.
NMU provided me with so many opportunities and I am honored to represent this university in the big leagues. Everyone along the way allowed me to get hands-on experience and challenged me to learn so many amazing skills that I was able to later apply to my job with the Lions and can apply to jobs to come. Between the professors and students in the NMU Public Relations program, various mentors throughout my education, my work experiences and all of my work supervisors along the way, my time at Northern helped guide me to where I am at today and I could not be more grateful!
Takeaway
Dream big and shoot for the stars! It’s always important to remember that no one’s paths are identical, but while your path may take unexpected twists and turns along the way, your dream career is not impossible! Northern has so many great and credible opportunities to take forward into the professional world. The smaller school size in the tight-knit city of Marquette allows for a plethora of hands-on experiences among amazing individuals. You’ll have so many unique stories and experiences to talk about in interviews that will set you apart from other candidates.
