David De Leon Jr. interned with West Texas A&M University's athletic department over the summer under Assistant Athletic Director Christie Russell. His responsibilities included increasing ticket sales, creating promotional materials, and finding corporate sponsors. Some of his tasks included running booths at new student orientations and designing a promotional calendar. He also utilized his Photoshop skills to create concession vouchers and tickets. Overall, the internship provided hands-on experience in marketing and promotions within a college athletic department.

1. David De Leon Jr.
Ms. Westermann
MCOM 4398
5, August 2013
Internship Overview
My internship this summer, starting in the month of June and continuing
until the second week of August, was with the West Texas A&M University’s athletic
department. Under the immediate supervision of Assistant Athletic Director,
Christie Russell, we handled most of the marketing and promotional endeavors that
go along with sports and athletics in general. Chantel Pearson, Marketing and
Development Coordinator, Christie and myself worked together on most of the
projects that we completed this summer. Our responsibilities, as a whole, included
increasing ticket sales, creating a promotional calendar, renewing corporate
sponsors as well as finding new sponsors, and creating all necessary materials for
our event calendar and game-day promotions.
One of the constant assignments that we were issued is to run a booth at new
student orientation for all incoming freshmen to West Texas A&M University. This
encompassed making flyers and pamphlets that we would then give to parents of
the freshmen. This task proved at times to be difficult because many of the parents
do not reside in Canyon and it is difficult to sell a product to someone that thinks
that they will not be able to take advantage of it. We did this seven times and during
the summer and solicited to over 1,000 parents of future buffaloes. After each
session it did seem like we were making some sales but not the numbers that we
were expecting. It was opportunities like this, which make our smaller market more

2. personable. It is a constant challenge having to sell our product to such a small
market but we proved that it could be done.
Another major responsibility that the three of us were issued is to put
together a foldout calendar of all of our promotional events that we are hosting
throughout the year. These promotions range from t-shirt nights, where fans will
have an opportunity to receive a free shirt, to nacho night and many other ploys to
get people to the game to cheer on our buffaloes. I had some say in the design and
format of this calendar but I mainly did word processing of the entire project. We
plan to mail this calendar out as soon as possible in order for our sports teams to
stay on our fan’s minds. One talent of mine that my supervisor utilized heavily was
my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. This is a skill I have had since high school and I
was able to create a few projects that will be used throughout this academic year at
all sporting events. For example I created a concession voucher called “Buff Bucks”
which is a coupon that is redeemable at our concession stands on specific dates, as
well as this upcoming seasons general admission ticket that can be purchased at the
gate of all home events.
There are also many small daily nuances that I was able to observe and learn
from that mainly people would probably take for granted. As the intern it was my
major responsibility to create and send out emails to our entire mailing list of over
10,000 people. These emails mainly consisted of information and were easy to
format, but the pressure of nearly the entire town of Canyon having the ability to nit
pick your errors was something I was not used to. Nearly everyday Christie and I
would make deposits at the university’s business office. On these days I was able to

3. sit back and watch the process of handling money. Other simple tasks such as going
to the mail room or making copies, which I was slightly embarrassed to admit that I
had never used a copier before and was unsure of how to work it properly. It was
through those small tasks, which are so simple; that I made connections with people
on campus in other departments that I think will truly help me in the future.
One of my favorite experiences throughout this summer was on one specific
occasion we were at the office and were going through the daily routine of sending
emails and brainstorming ideas when at lunchtime we had to run a co-worker to the
airport. After we finished our errands at the airport we got to eat lunch in Amarillo
and then we proceeded to go to a meeting with a printing company. It was exciting
to be in the room as a marketing meeting actually happened and to be associated
with West Texas A&M University in such a way, was definitely a very cool thing.
Another one of my fondest times was during the Fourth of July holiday at the parade
downtown Christie and I set up a booth and sold season tickets and t-shirts. We
woke up very early to beat the traffic there and were there for six hours selling the
season passes at a holiday rate of about 25% off of the regular price. Her, myself
and another athletic department employee who handles the media relations for all
sports sold over 40 season passes and were about to make over 4,000 in just a few
hours. It was definitely a moment of pride for us two and for the entire department.
This summer I was definitely more hands on than ever before and I felt as if I
was on salary just like everyone else in the department. I was given responsibilities
and tasks just as was everyone else in the department. I will remain employed with
the athletic department throughout the school year and help with game-day

4. promotions as well as other promotion related tasks. I am very appreciative of this
opportunity and have taking advantage of it to the fullest by networking with
members of our student-athlete donor club and also other people in the department.
This upcoming semester will be extremely hectic with four sports going on at one
time but the challenge of balancing every sport and making sure all game-day
promotions run smoothly will be the most exciting part of this job. I hope to stay in
this field of work for many years to come at a higher level and preferably in another
region, but I will always remember and cherish where I started and where I came
from.