Kara Lawrence

Winston-Salem State University Athletics Intern

April 30, 2019

Self Analysis

During my time as an Intern with the Winston-Salem State University Athletic department I
have learned multiple things such as game day operations, what happens in a collegiate athletic
department, and also how to do statistics for baseball. During my internship experience spring
football stood out to me the most just for the simple fact that it was a very big hands on
learning opportunity. I got a better understanding of how both equipment and apparel is
ordered for each sporting team, and also how the money is kept within its funding. I learned
how to keep budgeting at a minimum but how to order to the maximum. While working at this
internship I got a better understanding of what my strengths and weakness are, and how I
should go about bettering my weaknesses. One strength I noticed about myself is that I never
hesitated to take initiative when it came to something, I always stood up to be a leader in a
situation making myself seem very reliable. One weakness that I noticed is that I don’t continue
to push, I am afraid to step out of my comfort zone when I shouldn’t feel that way. Being that I
am a woman in male dominated field I understand that I need to be more comfortable stepping
out of my comfort zone and meeting new people. If I could change something about my
internship it would be being able to work with multiple people within the athletic department,
which would have allowed me the opportunity to learn more when it came to athletics. Being
that I ultimately want to be a sports agent I would have liked to have learned CIAA compliance
rules. I will take all the advice that was given to me and will apply it not only to my day to day
life but also my future career. One major thing I will take away from my internship will be to
always stay one step ahead of others to avoid miscommunication. My best memory from my
internship would be being able to work with the CIAA track meet, through that one experience I
gained a lot of background information on the CIAA itself and also made several connections.
My worst experience from my internship is doing inventory, I learned that doing something so
tedious requires a lot of patience that I need to learn how to adapt. The sport I enjoyed working
with the most is Football, I say that because it was a very good hands on experience. Everything
we did required us to be hands on from organizing equipment and uniforms to learning how to
take apart a helmet. From football I was also granted the opportunity to see how recruiting
takes place, and how signing day works. Being given the opportunity to sit down and build a
relationship with each individual football coach and see what they do when they aren’t in
practice was also a great experience.