This is the ennnnnd...of the internship (bad Eagles pun)

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WOW. What a long day. I just finished with my internship last night, upon the conclusion of Team Managers Training for my company's big event in April: the Super City Uni Games. I flew back to Wellington, got back to my flat at 9:15, then flew out of Wellington to Christchurch this morning at 6:50. Today is a whole blog in itself, which i will hopefully get a chance to post tomorrow. But, for right now, I'll leave you with the fact that I am in Franz Josef (by the glacier) and plan to hit the sack as soon as this is posted. This blog will cover my internship experience as a whole and what I feel I gained from it. I wrote it before my boss and I left for Team Managers Training, so I am late posting it by about a week.


Wow, it seems like things are winding down very quickly in New Zealand. I’m off to Auckland with my boss tomorrow--we’re heading up Team Managers’ Training for the 2011 Super City Games. It has been SO cool this past week researching and planning for the event. I made Team Managers’ Manuals for all the Team Managers from the universities and select tertiary institutions (kind of like community colleges) across New Zealand. It’s amazing how much goes into planning just a 3-day training session for a 4-day event that is taking place next April!

Yesterday was my last official day at the office, as I’m returning from Auckland next Friday and leaving for my South Island trip the day after. As I was cleaning out my desk, I realized how much I’d really accomplished in the past 8 weeks. As a 22-year-old undergraduate, I chatted on the phone with National Marketing Managers and wrote sponsorship proposals to gain support for an event involving 28 sports and over 2,000 students across New Zealand. I made budgets; booked flights, accommodation and transportation; “sold” our event to first-timer institutions; updated facebook and our web site; wrote press releases (one of which was published!); created marketing communications plans and materials; attended awards banquets and consortium meetings; researched and found the online registration system my boss ended up implementing; compiled, analyzed and summarized survey results; organized entertainment, including an Auckland scavenger hunt/amazing race combo I’m super pumped about the TM’s doing next week!, and just generally increased my confidence in the professional world by a TON--in addition to fetching office supplies and, once, coffee 😊

This experience has truly been amazing. I feel like, although the tasks I did were fairly insignificant, they have prepared me to be a leader in whatever career path I choose. As the Executive Director and I sat and sipped on a few bottles of wine at 4:00 last friday, I recognized a lot of similarities between her and I. In a lot of ways, I hope to model my professional career after hers. We both hate being viewed by men in the business world as deserving less respect or not being taken as seriously, we both love making the tough decisions, we both know what it takes to get the job done and do it well, and we both have a good sense of the bigger picture and how to get from point A to point Z, via B, C, D, etc. Oh, and we’re both not overly formal and know how to kick back and relax!

The main benefit I’ve gained from my internship experience, besides the professional skills, is that I’ve realized that I HAVE to work in a company that does something I am passionate about--and that’s most likely going to be sports. With a public that’s getting fatter and lazier by the pound, what is more important than exercise? Not to mention the social aspects, healthy competition and chance to blow off steam. I love athletics---love them!

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