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Internship Profiles

Alex Miles '10 
Alex Miles '10
 		 University of Tampa student Alex Miles '10 never thought he’d be eating dinner, playing ping pong and joking around with Tampa Bay Buccaneer football players and hopefuls last summer. As an intern at the summer training camp in Tampa, Miles did just that.

“It [was] really exciting to wake up every day and work here, to be around the coaches, the marketing department and scouting. It [was] such a rush,” said Miles, a sport management major.

Miles stayed at a hotel near the Bucs training facility with the players. He started his days at 5:30 a.m. and shuttled players to and from the practice field. He, along with a group of about 20 interns, helped make sure the days go smoothly logistically. He assisted with autograph sessions, charted plays for coaches, processed the credentials for media and celebrities and sat in on the video editing of play review tapes.

“I definitely believe UT is the best in the country for not only teaching but for the hands-on learning experiences you can get,” said Miles, who has worked with the Tampa Bay Lightning in their guest services department, volunteered with the Clearwater Ironman race and co-founded the Sports and Entertainment Management Society, which provides volunteer opportunities in members’ career fields. He also volunteered in January 2009 for the NFL Experience during Super Bowl XLIII.

Ryan Messier '09 
Ryan Messier
 		 Ryan Messier ’09, a sport management major from Attleboro, MA, was a summer intern with the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI. As an intern, his main responsibility was management, marketing, and administration of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, which attracts an on-site audience of 20,000 and is broadcasted live on Fox Sports Net.

Messier was also directly involved in the preparation for the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He served as a liaison between sponsor representatives and coordinated all box holder packages, clinics, gifts and mailings.

As a tournament manager, he also undertook the role of volunteer coordinator by supervising and scheduling the hundreds of volunteers needed to make the tournament a success.  

Michael Zeolla '10 
Zeolla  Michael Zeolla, a senior writing major from Briarcliff Manor, NY, worked as an intern for Lionsgate Films. His duties included researching and updating press lists, accompanying film stars to press interviews, and assisting with promotions of film-related events.

In addition to working in the New York office, Zeolla evaluated incoming script submissions for Lionsgate’s Los Angeles-based production office on a year round basis. In this capacity, he was assigned to read about one script per week to decide if it should be sent to producers for possible development into a feature film.

Zeolla joined Lionsgate Films as an intern at the end of his freshman year at UT. It was his first internship experience and a major stepping-stone toward his goal of a career in the film industry.

 

Mollie Taylor, Tanya Brunner and Amanda Longo  
FWRI 


Mollie Taylor  

 Mollie Taylor '09, Tanya Brunner '09 and Amanda Longo '08 completed internships in different areas of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), based in St. Petersburg, FL. While the three shared a double major in marine science and biology, each worked in separate areas on individual research projects that help further the institute’s work in the areas of ecosystem assessment and restoration and studies of marine wildlife.

Taylor analyzed the stomach contents of silver perch in an ongoing effort to survey the fish population in the Tampa Bay area. Meticulously, she examined five or six silver perch each day with the goal of determining the availability and scarcity of various food sources in the fish’s natural habitat. Taylor is attending Florida State University. She is working toward a master's degree in biological sciences and studying the effects of anoxia in the Apalachicola Bay area.

The FWRI’s Stock Enhancement Research Facility in Port Manatee is where Brunner spent the day maintaining the facility’s outdoor ponds where a variety of fish are raised prior to an eventual release in the wild. Brunner helped with such tasks as maintaining the salinity and levels of oxygen in the ponds, fertilizing the algae and tagging specific fish populations for tracking purposes.

For Longo the first few weeks on the job at the FWRI’s Health Group included dispatches from the “Fish Kill Hotline” – a phone number for boaters to report observances of dead fish in the water. The group was tasked with determining what caused the fish to die. Longo focused on researching the effect of different parasites on the reproductive abilities of grouper and other commercially valuable fish.

 

Adam Jones ’04  
Adam Jones
 		 Adam Jones ’04 completed an internship with PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP during his junior year at The University of Tampa. Upon graduation, the company hired him as a senior consultant. He currently manages the firm's sports advisory practice, advising clients on issues related to the demand and economics of sports franchises and facilities.

Jones graduated from UT with a double major in marketing and sport management. He joined the sports advisory practice as an intern during his junior year and served in that role until he was hired as an associate following graduation. He previously held positions with the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning, beginning in his sophomore year.  

Jones is a frequent guest lecturer at UT and featured speaker at industry conferences on various sports industry topics. He was named one of the "Top 30 Consultants under 30" by Consulting Magazine, the flagship publication of the consulting profession, in January 2008.

 

Tena West '09 
Teena West  Tena West interned in Washington D.C. as part of the FBI’s coveted and highly competitive Honors Internship Program. A Tampa native, West was one of more than 100 students from across the nation selected to take part in the internship experience. Her primary assignment was to the bureau’s Human Resources division at the main headquarters, giving her exposure to numerous aspects of the FBI’s inner workings.

Months of background checks and thorough investigation gave West the security clearance to enter the headquarters with the same privileges of any FBI employee. Her day was typically a long hustle of briefings having to do with new technology, safety and security procedures and confidential FBI business.

A double major in criminology and psychology, West’s academic pursuits were put to the test in this setting, where background screenings and examinations of potential FBI employees as well as current employees are the focus of much of the work.
 
In addition to the regular briefings were occasional tours of FBI facilities – such as the FBI training facility in Quantico, VA – and special conferences that are designed to further familiarize interns with the bureau. Personal firearms training is also a compulsory part of West’s internship.

West says she hopes to eventually have a career with the FBI.

Shane Scanlon '10 
Shane Scanlon  Shane Scanlon completed an internship as a research assistant with Calkain Realty Advisors – a national commercial real estate firm – during the spring semester of his junior year at UT.

A year later, he was employed part-time at Calkain, with promising prospects of a full-time job at Calkain or elsewhere in the business world after graduation.

A business management major, Scanlon’s internship and subsequent employment have provided him with invaluable hands-on knowledge of the real estate industry. All of it began with a visit to a UT internship fair in the fall of 2007.

As an intern, Scanlon worked directly with everyone in the company from the CEO and vice president to the individual brokers. His chief duties focused on introducing him to the basics of the company’s investments, properties, and market information as well as different types of contract agreements. Upon getting hired as a part-time employee, his duties expanded to where he now plays a bigger role managing the company’s transactions.