Just three months ago, I began my internship as the ‘Marketing, Communications, and Event’ Intern at the Centre for Sport Capacity. Now that it is coming to an end, I can take a birds-eye view of what I’ve done at the CSC, and the lasting impact the Centre will have on my career. 

Firstly, I would like to thank Dr. Julie Stevens, Director of the CSC, and Grace Nelson, Coordinator at the CSC, for granting me this opportunity. From the first time I met them during the interview process to my last day at the Centre, I have been treated exceptionally well. They have granted me every opportunity to succeed and grow. If you are a student interested in gaining experiential education, the Centre for Sport Capacity is an organization that offers so many amazing opportunities.  

Throughout my time at the Centre for Sport Capacity, I was constantly given opportunities to develop skills that I already considered my strengths while being supported in areas that I wanted to develop. From a day-to-day perspective, my tasks revolved around content creation for the CSC’s Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, responding to emails, attending meetings, and collaborating with the rest of the CSC team on supporting our members. This allowed me to develop skills surrounding copy writing, social media and web design, and the management of social media accounts across multiple platforms. I was also granted the opportunity to attend four events: Parasport Ontario’s Niagara Parasport Festival, Niagara Geoparks’ Niagara Trail Summit, Sport Niagara’s Launch Event, and Brock University’s SMART START activation for incoming students. Being a part of these events as well as numerous meetings allowed me to develop my networking skills.  

My main task throughout the duration of my internship at the Centre was to reimagine their social media, website, experiential education, and events analytic databases. The CSC collects a lot of data in order to engage their target audience, enhance social media and website performance, and analyze the Centre’s growth. I was in charge of finding ways to collect data in an efficient and sustainable manner. This meant developing Excel databases that could be replicated for future semesters while connecting them to the CSC’s Master files. To accomplish this, I utilized a number of different Excel formulas that count, sum, average, and sort the range of different metrics the CSC collects. With formulas that are linked to various different sheets and other files through the CSC database, retrieving analytics from semester-to-semester and over the course of a year is an effortless process.  

While being in charge of the CSC’s data management, I was tasked with defining the terminology of the databases, gathering key metrics and comparing analytic performance across the Centre’s social media, website, experiential education, and event analytics. This resulted in the production of a number of internal reports used to showcase the growth of the CSC to the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Due to the statistical evidence of growth within the Centre, the CSC was able to acquire operational support until the end of 2024. Seeing the results of my work at the Centre was a major source of gratification. It also reinforced my commitment to leave the CSC with a method of sustainability for their data collection.  

One of the projects that I am most proud of is my legacy piece. This document is a culmination of all the terminology that makes up the databases, the process of data management at the CSC, visuals, and external resources. Within these topics are the definitions of each term in the databases and their application for the Centre, data collection methods, and the steps to add data into the Semesterly and Master CSC files. Future interns will be able to search through and reference this document when participating in the data collection process. As a legacy piece, I am happy to know that my work will be supporting the Centre long after my time has passed.  

As I conclude my internship at the Centre for Sport Capacity, I feel that my professionalism, technical skills revolving around social media and Excel, as well as my ability to translate and mobilize knowledge can be considered assets going forward in my Sport Management undergraduate degree, and beyond. While I will continue my professional development beyond time at the Centre for Sport Capacity, the foundation the Centre has given me for my career in sport is something I will never forget. Leaving filled with pride knowing that my impact on the Centre will go beyond my internship, I am excited to see what’s to come for the CSC!