Going from Marist to the Miami Dolphins, 尼克Russo ‘20 scored a touchdown with his summer internship.

During the spring of his sophomore year, Russo, a dual major in communications 和业务 with concentrations in sports communication 和 市场营销, began his online search for a summer internship. He found, in his words, “the internship opportunity of a lifetime” with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. “My Dad is a Dolphins super-fan, so I knew I had to try for it.”

After applying to the program, he was contacted to interview for the position in the 市场营销 department. 面试过程中, Russo had an exciting surprise: the Miami Dolphins organization was very interested in both of his hugely successful Instagram accounts (despite their NBA focus, he joked) 和 how he used digital 市场营销 in his daily life. Because of this experience, he was hired.

罗素的Instagram账号 NBA永不停歇 和 时髦因素 都专注于nba吗. 他开始 NBA永不停歇 2017年6月. Just a few months into running the account, he started to see a large influx of followers; today the account has 119,000的粉丝. NBA永不停歇 features a wide range of NBA commentary, 模因, 照片, 和文章, which have gained attention not only with NBA fans, but also from some NBA players themselves. “One of my biggest achievements on the account was getting NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal to repost something to his own account,罗素说. In addition to O’Neal, players like Carmelo Anthony 和 Isaiah Thomas have interacted as well. In just over a year, the account had an astounding 100,000的粉丝.

Because of that success, Russo decided to exp和. A few months after the success of NBA永不停歇 开始，他获得了 时髦因素 来自最初的创造者. “It’s meant to be a more fun 和 laid-back page,罗素说. Moving ahead, he also hopes to add more video content. The follower count of the account when Russo acquired it was 137,000, 和 now 时髦因素’s popularity has grown to 144,000.

L-R: Dolphins staff members Patrick Arthur (Director of Marketing), Karli Kadlecek (Project 管理 Coordinator), Nicholas Maier (Marketing Intern), 尼克Russo ‘20 (Marketing Intern), Cass和ra Congemi (Project 管理 Coordinator), 和 Alex Parker (Senior Manager of Digital Marketing)

All of this experience was useful to Russo as he hopped on a plane to Miami immediately after the end of the spring semester. The structure of the Dolphins internship had him doing rotations in different areas of communication, 市场营销, 和业务. An especially memorable moment for him was when interns were split into groups 和 told to create a revenue-generating plan for the Hard Rock Stadium. 意外的? The plan had to be presented in front of a table of Hard Rock Stadium executives. “I worked on 和 presented a three-year, multistage plan based on bringing e-sports—an untapped demographic—to the stadium. It was very nerve-wracking for me 和 the other interns to present our ideas directly to the stadium executives. But it was a great experience.”  

在迈阿密的夏天, Russo worked on a wide variety of tasks, including replacing stadium signage, ticket sales for major events, including the Hispanic 遗产 Day game, 和业务-to-business events.

Russo received a great deal of guidance 和 support from the Dolphins staff 和 really enjoyed “lunch 和 learn” sessions with senior executives, which gave him a chance to exp和 his learning experience beyond the classroom.

Russo has a few pointers for students looking for internships. “开始早期! Deadlines come up quickly 和 you never can go wrong getting everything in early, it also helps to send a letter to the human resources director to show your interest in the organization” he said. “And always showcase your niche. 为 me, that was my NBA Instagram accounts. Highlight anything that makes you unique over other c和idates. Having a side project that gives you a chance to have an outlet for your passions sets you apart from the rest.”