Hello, my name is Chris Weier, I am from Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, and I am currently a student finishing the last year of my sport management degree at Brock University. I am the Marketing, Communications, and Development Coordinator Intern with the Centre for Sport Capacity (CSC) summer, 2022. I am very excited to continue my professional development with the CSC and look forward to the many projects and experiences that I will face in the next four months.

With the help of Career Zone at Brock and the Sport Management Experiential Coordinator, Michael Fawkes, I was able to secure an interview with Dr. Julie Stevens, the Director of the Centre, and Jess Crosthwaite, the Coordinator of the Centre. The application and interview process was something I had never experienced before. For the past seven summers, I worked on a farm where there were no resumés, cover letters, or interviews required. With support from Career Zone, I was able to develop both a successful cover letter and resumé and complete the interview process for the first time.

Growing up I was heavily involved in sport, playing both hockey and lacrosse; however I have limited experience on the business side of sport. Nowadays, I continue to play lacrosse for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League and I am currently an on-ice official at the minor hockey level as well as a linesperson for the Ontario Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association.

The introduction to the business side in areas of communication and marketing and the opportunity to gain valuable experience was the main attraction of the CSC for me. As a participant, you do not often get exposed to this side of sports and I recognize that I need to develop technical skills such as content creation, social media management, and website design, among others, to continue my professional development. It is also important to develop key soft skills in areas of leadership, problem-solving, and time management that I believe I will develop with my time at the CSC.

I was also intrigued by the Centre because of the interaction and close relation it has to its members, the Niagara region, and community partners. I believe that this internship will expose me to numerous networking opportunities with people and organizations that will be valuable resources in the future. Additionally, I learned a great deal from the many student blogs from past CSC interns, as they described the types of opportunities and various experiences they had while interning with the CSC.

Interning with the Centre will allow me to be a part of many exciting events and experiences throughout the summer. One event that stands out to me is the 2022 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay that happened on May 28th. This event was a collaboration with the Niagara 2022 Canada Games and Commonwealth Sport Canada while engaging with Brock staff, faculty, and other members in the community.

The Centre for Sport Capacity provides great experiential learning that will be extremely beneficial to my professional development. Throughout the internship, I hope to continue to develop both hard and soft skills that can be transferred to future opportunities as well as connect with a range of industry professionals to help build lasting relationships. I look forward to my opportunity as the Communications, Marketing and Business Development Coordinator intern with the Centre!