A few weeks back, Mark Zablow, CEO of Cogent Entertainment Marketing, told our class that we should “get in rooms we’re not supposed to be in” in order to accelerate our careers in the sports industry. In other words, by putting ourselves in places we really have no business being in, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to meet people, make connections, and have experiences we otherwise would not have if we didn’t take the risk to get there in the first place.
“Our entire MSBA class has been reaping the benefits of MSBA since we stepped foot in New York City.”
On Friday evening, following our awesome Office Field Trip to Whistle Sports, I found myself in a room I most definitely was not supposed to be in. My Mentor, Kelly Higgins, is the Senior Manager of Partnership Activation for the New York Mets. She invited a friend (fellow baseball-lover and MSBA 2016 classmate, Ryan Daniel) and myself to hang out in the company suite with her, her coworkers, and a handful of potential clients as the Mets took on the Cubs and numerous rain delays. She also took Ryan and I around Citi Field, explaining the different features of the park, her sponsors, past and future sponsorship events, and even showing us the players’ parking lot. Oh, and not to mention Mets great Rusty Staub made an appearance in the suite later on and I got his autograph. Casual.
I mean, are you kidding me? Never in a million years did I think I would step foot in a suite at Citi Field, let alone have the opportunity to speak with professionals in the sports industry and enjoy a free burger from Shake Shack. While I didn’t necessarily take any risks to get into that specific room (shout out to Kelly for making this all possible), I definitely think I took a risk applying to MSBA in the first place. After discovering the program, I had my sights set on spending my summer in New York City to be immersed in the sports industry, but there were certainly no guarantees. There was no guarantee I would be accepted. There was no guarantee my parents would agree to let me go. And there was no guarantee the program would turn out like I thought it would. But because I initially took that risk in December (with a little push from Lorne to finish filling out my application), I was able to reap the benefits in July. Our entire MSBA class has been reaping the benefits of MSBA since we stepped foot in New York City, but not everyone experienced what I did on Friday night, and that’s pretty cool.