Our Bison Spotlight shifts toward Ayana Rivera from East Haven, CT. She is a Sport Management major and will be graduating in May 2022. Ayana is involved in the Emerging Leaders Program on campus. She enjoys watching sports, hanging with her friends and volunteering in her school community in her free time. A fun fact about Ayana is that on her right ear, she has a little bump that is shaped like a heart!
During spring 2020, Ayana completed an internship at the Miami Super Bowl Live and currently interns at The College of Holy Cross. At the Miami Super Bowl Live experience, Ayana was on the Volunteer Host Committee. She worked in 3 different locations: Super Bowl Live, Super Bowl Experience and a location 15 minutes away from the stadium. She had the opportunity to interact with several people and help individuals with I.T. issues.
During her Super Bowl experience, she woke up at 8:00 a.m. every day. She and the other volunteers chose what zone they were working in for the day. She worked in the Kid’s Zone, helped out during an interactive football activity, worked through the NFL Draft Day and assisted the autograph station engaging people in line and connecting them to meet their favorite NFL players. On the day of the Super Bowl, Ayana woke up at 3:30 a.m. She worked with a partner to direct fans who needed verification for their seating section. They had a 15-minute break and then rotated to their next station. The second station for Ayana was doing the verification scanning and directing guests into either lane 1 or 2. Her favorite part of working at the Super Bowl was “interact[ing] with the fans as well getting them to post on their social media, getting children involved in our interactive football games, and the opportunity to meet and get autographs with NFL players/Hall of Famers”.
When we asked Ayana’s advice to other students, she mentioned “Definitely start looking for internships as soon as you’re a sophomore. It will make it easier to get your internship credits and to have the experience within your major. You can always find internships through Handshake which is such a great resource. Also, talk to your advisor about acquiring internships because they are willing to help you find the internships that best fit you and your major.”
Currently, Ayana works at The College of Holy Cross as a Sports Event Management and Marketing Intern. For every game, she sets up the marketing table with game programs, team posters, and stickers to handout. A typical day for Ayana at The College of Holy Cross is dependent on the timing of the sporting event, morning or evening. Her shift hours are 4-5 hours long, depending on how long the game lasts. She assists with set up and break down of the event. Ayana also finds contestants for their promotional events during media timeouts, ensures the national anthem singer is ready to perform, records scoring plays and updates the score. Afterward, she breaks down the marketing table and thanks the fans for their continued support.
Ayana’s favorite part of working at Holy Cross is “being involved in sports which is my type of environment. From this internship I love to interact with fans coming to the games and of course getting kids/students/parents to participate in our promotional events”. A piece of advice Ayana gives regarding obtaining her internship with The College of Holy Cross is, “Always make sure you follow up where you applied for your internships. If you are nervous about your interview, you should do a mock interview to build up your confidence”.
We want to congratulate Ayana on her internship experiences and for taking the time to share them with us. The CPDC Team wishes you the best of luck throughout your career!
