Ask most young kids what they want to do when they grow up and you’ll likely hear options such as astronaut, doctor, lawyer or teacher. Not Christy Martinez.
“I have always wanted to work for the Marlins,” said this international business and marketing major and lifelong Marlins’ fan.
She recently took another step toward realizing that goal when she became the team’s publications sales intern, a position she began on Opening Day and that will last till the end of the Marlins’ season, which she hopes will take her through the World Series.
In a course titled Marketing Yourself Marketing Yourself in Today’s Competitive Job Market offered in the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (FIU), Martinez interviewed the team’s manager of Hispanic sales and marketing. That led to a position with the Marlins’ Street Team, a group of 20 to 30 members who promote the team at events throughout South Florida. Now, she’s in charge of scheduling the group. She’s also in charge of sales and inventory for the familiar items at the ballpark: programs, media guides, yearbooks, and scorecards.
Experience nets course credit for Martinez.
“As one of the business school’s strategic goals for 2008-2009, we committed to promoting real world experiences as part of the academic training of our graduates,” said K. Galen Kroeck, chair of Department of Management and International Business, which coordinates the undergraduate internships. “We expanded the internship program to help us accomplish that goal.”
According to Kroeck, “Students find the opportunity and we evaluate it to make sure it’s equivalent to a course before approving it. We also make sure the employers understand that they serve as instructors with responsibilities to develop the interns through appropriately challenging assignments.”
Martinez, who is bilingual and whose FIU education “gave me the tools and prepared me to work in a real environment,” hopes her good fortune thus far, combined with her background and experience this season will turn into a full-time job with the franchise.
