Danielle Pudenz

Responsibilities

During my Event Services and Game Operations internship with Iowa State Athletics, I was in charge of prepping for any sporting and convention events happening over the weekend. Alongside a team of interns, I coordinated Iowa State football game days, All-State choir competitions, the Cyclone Open Wrestling meet, College GameDay, and more. In order to do this we set up tents, put up signage, and organized different materials needed for the events. On game days we delivered lunches, cleaned up ticket gates, and set up lights. I had a lot of responsibilities during this job and it was fun to see all the things that go into each Iowa State athletic event.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during my internship would be my ability to lead others after I had learned some of the ins and outs of the process of game operations. When I first started, I had to do a lot of learning and gain advice from the other interns and from my supervisor. As I continued through the position, I got to be the one to help new interns and welcome them in. This is one of my greatest accomplishments because I got to be a leader and use my knowledge in the workplace to make the team better as a whole.

Learning experience

One of the greatest lessons I learned is how to work with a team but be a leader at the same time. We had a team of interns and it was sometimes hard for someone to take initiative on a task. I learned how to balance being a leader and taking charge, with being able to follow the lead of others and play my part. Another important lesson I learned was how to ask questions when I need it. In order to save time and not have to fix mistakes, it is highly important to clarify and ask questions, even when it feels like you don’t want to bother anyone. People often want to help you and would rather you ask than mess something up.

What advice would you give?

My advice for future students in my major would be to take any opportunity you can to work in multiple fields in your major. Gaining experience in sports management allowed me to see if it was for me or not. Alongside this internship, I took opportunities to do internships over the summer in other fields like parks and recreation management and in catering. I think it is super important that you try out different things because there are so many opportunities in the event management world that people don’t even know about.