One spring day, a Student Prince decided to go on a summer adventure. “It won’t be long before I have a career,” the Prince said, “so I’d better start preparing now.” So with some ’Berg education under their hat, and some connections in their back pocket, the Student Prince began forging their way through an internship.
We continue our web series, Internship Chronicles.
Chapter 2: “The Fun Bunch”
Jacob Brickman is a ticket sales intern with the Lake Erie Crushers. The Lake Erie Crushers, who play in Avon, Ohio, are a professional baseball team in the independent Frontier League. Jacob is a Sport Management major at Heidelberg, with a business concentration. He is from Brunswick, Ohio. Jacob is working to become an expert in the sports business world, concentrating on marketing and sales. This internship is one step toward Jacob achieving his goal of working in the sales or marketing of an NFL team. Wherever he works, Jacob wants to make a huge impact and give back to his community.
How did you find your internship, or how did the internship find you?
The way I found this internship is through LinkedIn. I had made a post about looking for an internship, and multiple connections guided me toward the Crushers and the opportunities they had to offer.
What did you expect from your internship initially?
For this internship, I expected it to be a lot of hard work, but I also expected that communication was going to play a huge part in my day-to-day work, especially in the ticket sales role within the organization.
What really happens in your day-to-day work?
So, there are two parts to my everyday work. There are non-game days and there are game days. For non-game days, it tends to be pretty relaxed. I assist the director of sales and marketing and the ticket sales account executives in their projects in order to reach certain goals that we have for the season. This work correlates and, in the end, helps out the box office manager there.
For game days, I do a little bit of everything. I start off by wiping down our seats in the ballpark and cleaning the suites that we have there as well. After that, I work in the box office. There, I either help with will-call, help sell walk-up tickets, or work in a customer service role for visitors who purchased online or want an exchange. That will usually last to the top of the 5th inning for the game. After that, I walk around the ballpark looking to see if anyone else within the organization needs any help or assistance, and I help out any of the fans who have questions. The biggest priority with the Lake Erie Crushers is providing good customer service to the fans in attendance.
What connections have you made?
I have made a ton of connections throughout the organization. It’s cool because I made connections with people like the owner, the director of sales and marketing, the director of promotions, the director of social media, the box office manager, ticket sales account executives, and the list goes on. I am super thankful that I made all of these connections because they will help me get my foot in the door of the sports world.
What is the most valuable thing you’ll bring back to the classroom after this experience?
The most valuable thing I'll bring back to the classroom is the leadership experience and the renewed appreciation for a day of hard work. I learned from the internship that working in sports sales can be “a grind,” as people say. Relating the internship back to my studies in the classroom will be very important.
If your internship was a book or a chapter in a book, what should it be titled?
If I had to choose a title, I would have to call it the "Fun Bunch.” I say this because that is what they call the interns at the Lake Erie Crushers.
For more information about the Lake Erie Crushers, visit their homepage.
To see what Jacob is up to, check out his LinkedIn page.