Internship with Temple Athletics Department
As an intern at Temple Athletics, I was able to transform and position the Athletics Department into a modern and technologically advanced entity.
Like how I transformed the Department’s website? Learn more about what I did below.
Since the summer of 2018, I have had the opportunity to intern for Temple Athletics Department in the area of Marketing & Promotions. So far, this has been one of my most positive experiences as a Temple student. Along with marketing and promotions work, the department’s flexibility allows me to add value to the department’s operations through information technology.
My work for the department can be divided into two parts: marketing and information technology. On the marketing side, I get to actively contribute to the marketing operations by assisting the Assistant Athletics Director in strategizing for the new basketball season. By conducting research on lessons learned from the 76ers’ ‘Phila Unite’ Campaign and Golden State Warrior’s ‘Strength in Number’ Campaign, while also working in team with other interns, we created a comprehensive marketing plan for Temple Men’s Basketball new season. As an MIS major, I was able to lead the team on researching new and exciting technologies and technological strategy that can improve the atmosphere and fan experience coming to the Liacouras Center. Taking lessons from Enterprise IT Architecture, I encouraged my team to find the key capabilities of the technologies while also reminding them to pay attention to the monetary cost, benefits, and net benefit of each recommendation. I facilitated communications among team members to ensure new ideas are heard and make sure that everyone understand the direction of the project. In the end, my boss was impressed by the new direction that we took our project in a new direction and implemented some of our ideas during the basketball season.
On the information technology side, because I have some technical background, I was asked to transfer over the Temple Owl Club website to Temple Athletics domain. Previously, Temple Owl Club website is created and hosted by a different company. However, as time went on, the department decided it was best to host the Temple Owl Club on its own domain. When doing this project, I rely heavily on the knowledge gained from my MIS classes such as Data-Centric Application Development and Application Integration and Evaluation. Afterwards, I use my knowledge in HTML, CSS, Javascript, and responsive web design to create and manage 20+ responsive webpages for the department. When creating these webpages, I always keep in mind how to best engage visitors coming to the site so I made the site as interactive and mobile-friendly as possible.
In addition, I constantly keep in mind ways to continuously improve the website; therefore, I requested my supervisor to grant me access to the site’s Google Analytics. With this power tool, I can identify hidden trends and uncover hidden insights to tailor how I developed the website. For example, I discovered that a significant amount of visitors use Iphone to visit our website. As a result, I particularly pay more attention to an Iphone visitor’s user experience to give them the best experience possible.
Interested in seeing more transformation? You can visit some of the webpages I have created below:
- All webpages within Temple Athletics’ Owl Club Website (owlsports.com/owlclub)
- Temple Athletics’ 2018 Football Postseason Central (owlsports.com/sports/2018/11/27/2018-football-postseason-central)
- Temple Athletics’ Men’s Basketball Tickets Page (owlsports.com/sports/2017/1/30/mens-basketball-tickets)
- Temple Athletics’ Women’s Basketball Tickets Page (owlsports.com/sports/2017/1/30/womens-basketball-tickets)
- Temple Athletics’ Black History Month Page (owlsports.com/sports/2018/3/23/bhm-2019)
- Temple Athletics’ Promotions Calendar (owlsports.com/sports/2009/8/31/GEN_0831093434)
Interested in seeing more? Check out my project portfolio here.
The aspect I like the most about this internship is how involve you can get with the department and how you can physically see the result of your work. During my internship, I do not have to spend everyday sitting at the desk. Once a week, I bolster community relations for the department by distributing promotional materials at local businesses in the community. As I come back in the fall, I get to be involve in the on-field marketing promotions at Temple sporting events. Before working here, I thought a football match just … happened. The teams show up; they play football; commercials at half-time; the teams come back and the match end. When I worked my first football game, I was amazed at how much preparation and planning that go into these kinds of events. Promotions are well thought out and planned weeks before hand. During the game, messages and marketing advertisements are strategically timed and directed on the go. Going to a sporting event will never be the same for me.