Weare student scores
with Orlando Magic
DWC sport management’s Mark Rodrigues secures enviable professional job
(Nashua,
NH) — Twenty-one year old Mark Rodrigues,
like so many youngsters, grew up with dreams of playing professional
basketball. But then the young man from Weare, N.H., got serious — and put
all of his efforts into learning about the sport industry and dreaming of
working for a professional sport organization. Through hard work,
perseverance, and a genial disposition and professional manner, he got his
wish, landing a job with the Orlando Magic, even before he graduates
college at the end of this fall’s semester!
A sport management
major, Rodrigues chose to attend Daniel Webster — a small, private
student-focused college in Nashua, N.H. — and enroll in its relatively new
sport management program (the program is now celebrating its 10th
year). Why Daniel Webster College? “I had heard how good the sport
management program was at Daniel Webster and the success that its
graduates had. It also gave me the opportunity to play basketball. Daniel
Webster was my first choice school.”
“Being in a smaller
program,” he added, “is of the biggest reasons I’ve been successful.”
His success didn’t just “happen,” however.
All through his academic career, Rodrigues has taken advantage of
opportunities. Through DWC’s sport management program and the college’s
experiential learning focus, he learned as much as possible about the
industry and his special areas of interest, and, after one internship,
landed his first professional job in the sport industry. Following that
first job, he has spent the past three years working full time with the
Manchester Wolves Professional Arena Football Team, now as the
organization’s
Director
of
Ticket
Sales.
Presentation, he
added, is very important, as well as thinking “outside the box.”
All of these
experiences, combined with what he has learned in the classroom, has put
him the ideal place, having fended off more than ten job offers.
Internships
are key, he
noted, “I got the on-the-job training I needed,
while learning about the industry and how the business really works.
Internships also allowed me to implement ideas I garnered from my studies
at Daniel Webster.”
Said Dr. Eric Schwarz,
coordinator of the college’s sport management program, “Mark has been an
exceptional student in Daniel Webster’s sport management program. He
understood early in his college career that he needed to take the theory
acquired in the classroom and apply it to real world settings. He also
took full advantage of the numerous opportunities offered through DWC’s
sports management program, like working at the Boston Marathon, with the
Nashua Pride, and at New Hampshire International Speedway’s NASCAR event.
Even to the point of working full-time professionally, going to school
full time, and graduating a semester early, Mark did everything right.”
All of that, plus his perseverance and networking ability, added Dr.
Schwarz, “has enabled him to secure this outstanding professional
opportunity with the Orlando Magic organization.”
Rodrigues will start his new position as
ticket
sales
representative for
the Orlando Magic after the start of the New Year. The story recalling how
he secured the job is interesting in itself. As part of the Daniel Webster
sport marketing team competing at the Sport Marketing Association’s
conference last month, Rodrigues knew the Orlando Magic as interviewing,
but “I was not looking for a job. I was just looking for their advice on
how to break into the
NBA.”
Well, lo and behold,
of a dozen candidates, Rodrigues “blew away” his competition. Watching the
interviewers carefully during the actual interview, he knew that he had
“nailed” the interview, easily up to the challenge of convincing the
Orlando Magic group with his answer to “Why should I hire you over the
others?”
And it won’t stop with
the Orlando Magic. Mr. Rodrigues has short and long-term plans for himself
already in place. Short-term, he wants to write a book on how to break
into the industry at a young age; at the three-year point, he sees himself
as an NBA director; long-term, he would like to own a sport franchise at
the minor or professional level. Continuing his education is also
something to be considered down the road.
Rodrigues’ advice to other young people with
a keen interest in the sport industry who are looking toward college?
“Don’t come in (to college) blind. Do some job shadowing, find out what
you like and don’t like. Learn about the areas in the
sport
industry you would like to work in. Try to find ‘the right fit.’” Mark
Rodrigues did find his “right fit” and is soon to be launched out into the
world, with the whole world readying itself in trying to keep up.
Founded in 1965,
Daniel Webster is a student-focused independent college with a primary
concentration on experiential learning. Daniel Webster College's
nationally ranked degree programs in aviation are well complemented by its
innovative programs in business and management, computer science and
information technology, aeronautical and mechanical engineering, sport
management, and social science. For more information, visit
www.dwc.edu or call 603-577-6000.
