coming soon... madrid take 2
In case you don't follow me on social media, I'm going back to Spain! The flights are yet to be booked, but my internship site is confirmed and I've rented an AirBnb for 43 nights, so I guess it's pretty official!
I'll be working near full time this summer, for about 6 weeks, with Club Estudiantes Basketball. Yes, that's Students Club in English- a pretty lame name for a sports team, right? But, there's actually historical significance to the name. The team was founded in 1948 by a group of students from a public high school in Madrid. Now, the basketball club is known commonly as Movistar Estudiantes for sponsorship reasons; Movistar is a major cell phone carrier in Spain. They're a team in the ACB, or the Associación de Clubes de Baloncesto. Most would consider them to be one of the top three basketball clubs in Spain!
My role with Club Estudiantes will be partly in marketing, but mostly with the cantera. When I searched the word in the dictionary, it translates to, "a pool of young players." I assumed it had something to do with recruiting, but after clarifying with Pilar and one of my professors from Greece, it actually involves youth (about ages 6-16) who the clubs feel are worthy of investing in to feed into their professional club someday. The idea is a bit hard to grasp in terms of US sport, since our top athletes progress through our high school and college athletic systems and then to the NBA, but this is a concept common to European basketball. Some of my other responsibilities will be related to ticket pricing, merchandising, and off-season marketing tasks.
My internship will be totally in Spanish, from what I know. This is something I said I was open to from the get-go, since I wanted to really grow from the experience, as it's a huge investment. However, I didn't really expect my position to require 100% Spanish on all fronts! About two weeks ago, I talked via Skype with my two bosses, and they were both pretty difficult to understand. I always have a hard time understanding males in Spanish (probably because they're a bit mumbly), but I feel pretty confident that I will adjust quickly. I also can't wait to see how much my Spanish improves in a short time, since I'll be fully immersed in the language. For study abroad, I spent so much time with English speakers that I didn't rely on Spanish as much as I should have, and for student teaching, I was at school in English for much of the day. I think I learned more living with Pilar than I did even studying abroad, so once I'm working in Spanish, I have a feeling I'll be feeling quite confident in my language skills- at least vocab pertaining to business and sport.
I'll be checking in here as often as I can while I'm gone. Expect posts on travel (Germany, England, and a few spots in Spain are on my traveling to-do list), my day-to-day routines, and my challenges. Until then, thanks in advance for good vibes and prayers. I am so, so excited, especially to reconnect with friends like Pilar, see new things, and be challenged in the sport industry. Can't wait to share more with you!
I'll be working near full time this summer, for about 6 weeks, with Club Estudiantes Basketball. Yes, that's Students Club in English- a pretty lame name for a sports team, right? But, there's actually historical significance to the name. The team was founded in 1948 by a group of students from a public high school in Madrid. Now, the basketball club is known commonly as Movistar Estudiantes for sponsorship reasons; Movistar is a major cell phone carrier in Spain. They're a team in the ACB, or the Associación de Clubes de Baloncesto. Most would consider them to be one of the top three basketball clubs in Spain!
My role with Club Estudiantes will be partly in marketing, but mostly with the cantera. When I searched the word in the dictionary, it translates to, "a pool of young players." I assumed it had something to do with recruiting, but after clarifying with Pilar and one of my professors from Greece, it actually involves youth (about ages 6-16) who the clubs feel are worthy of investing in to feed into their professional club someday. The idea is a bit hard to grasp in terms of US sport, since our top athletes progress through our high school and college athletic systems and then to the NBA, but this is a concept common to European basketball. Some of my other responsibilities will be related to ticket pricing, merchandising, and off-season marketing tasks.
My internship will be totally in Spanish, from what I know. This is something I said I was open to from the get-go, since I wanted to really grow from the experience, as it's a huge investment. However, I didn't really expect my position to require 100% Spanish on all fronts! About two weeks ago, I talked via Skype with my two bosses, and they were both pretty difficult to understand. I always have a hard time understanding males in Spanish (probably because they're a bit mumbly), but I feel pretty confident that I will adjust quickly. I also can't wait to see how much my Spanish improves in a short time, since I'll be fully immersed in the language. For study abroad, I spent so much time with English speakers that I didn't rely on Spanish as much as I should have, and for student teaching, I was at school in English for much of the day. I think I learned more living with Pilar than I did even studying abroad, so once I'm working in Spanish, I have a feeling I'll be feeling quite confident in my language skills- at least vocab pertaining to business and sport.
I'll be checking in here as often as I can while I'm gone. Expect posts on travel (Germany, England, and a few spots in Spain are on my traveling to-do list), my day-to-day routines, and my challenges. Until then, thanks in advance for good vibes and prayers. I am so, so excited, especially to reconnect with friends like Pilar, see new things, and be challenged in the sport industry. Can't wait to share more with you!
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