"Well, we'd like to tentatively offer you a position as New Media intern for the US Olympic Committee."
Yes, that's right...pending a background check (hence the "tentatively"), I am going to be an intern with the New Media department of the United States Olympic Committee for the summer of 2010. A million thoughts were racing through my head both immediately and for the rest of the day after that phone call...heck, I'm still half-expecting them to call me and say that they got their applications mixed up and meant to offer the position to someone else! After my background check goes through and says that I'm not some scary criminal, I'll find out my start date and start making arrangements to head out to Colorado Springs! Why Colorado Springs? Because part of this internship is living at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) there...yes, the same place where Olympic athletes live and train. I've got a summer of working, dining, and living with Olympians and the people who train and promote them ahead of me...and I cannot wait!
So, how did I end up here? I've been an avid fan of the Olympics for as long as I can remember...just ask my friends and family who end up ignored every two years when the Olympics are being televised! After a lifetime of watching the Olympics from afar, the idea crossed my mind during this year's Vancouver games...why should I just sit and watch when I could actually be a part of the Olympic Movement? So, I scoured TeamUSA.org for information on internships, emailed a couple of people about them, applied, and waited. After a month and a half of waiting (and finally thinking I just didn't get it), I got a phone call asking me to set up a time for a phone interview! A week after the first interview, I had a second interview...and was offered the position at the end of that second interview! And now, I've got one last hurdle to clear (that background check) before the position is officially mine.
Now, as many of you know, I'm a political science Masters student. Some people were a little taken aback by a poli sci student's desire to work in the world of sports...after all, everyone expects us to head straight to Washington, DC, after we graduate and work on Capitol Hill. I am not the typical student, though...I'm focusing my graduate education on international relations, and I've always been a large consumer of technology. I've also been quite active as a writer, both by writing for college newspapers and creative writing in all disciplines in my free time. Sports have always been a part of my life, although until my recent discovery of speedskating as something I can do myself instead of just watching on TV, it's almost always been as a casual fan.
So now combine international relations, technology, writing, and sports...and you get a USOC New Media intern! The Olympic Movement is an international movement, although I'll be working specifically with the US branch of it. I'll be utilizing technology to spread that message, specifically the Team USA website and social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, blogs). I'll also have the chance to create original content for the Team USA website...that means getting out and interviewing athletes who I happen to run into on the OTC campus! I'll be busy, but those of you who know me well know that I work best and am happiest when I'm busy. Since I haven't studied much marketing or TCOM, I am going to have to work my butt off to get up to speed on a lot of the technology aspects, but I am definitely ready to learn!
If anyone has any questions that I didn't answer here, you're welcome to ask them here (you don't have to have an account or anything...just ask anonymously if you don't have one) or in a comment on this blog. I'll do my best to answer them here! Also, you're welcome to follow me on Twitter if you'd like more immediate updates than those posted here!
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