Who Am I

As I promised weeks ago, I wanted to post a little background about myself.

My name is Jake. After completing this course I have just two more courses left to finish my MBA! I graduated from WNE (at the time WNEC) in 2010 with my undergraduate degree in Sport Management and I began my MBA program the following fall.

 

I am a big sports fan, especially basketball and football. Unfortunately, God didn’t give me the great gift of superior athleticism so after High School my days of playing organized sports were over. I still enjoy playing sports whenever I have that opportunity and the free time.

During my time at WNE I participated in many various activities including clubs and intramural sports. The summer after my sophomore year I interned for the Men’s Head Basketball Coach at Plymouth State University in my home town of Plymouth New Hampshire. This opened my eyes to the career I had initially planned to pursue. I enjoyed my time in this role, but after the internship I decided that I would prefer to make my career in a different role inside a sport organization. The same summer I traveled to China with a group from WNE for the Beijing Olympics. This experience was nothing short of life changing. I could go on forever about the trip but I want to try to keep this brief.

 

Toward the end of my junior year I took an internship with an Arena League football team in Manchester New Hampshire. This role was much closer to where I hoped to take my career. I was involved in a great deal of the promotional and marketing activates with the team and I had a great time while working very hard. As the summer came to an end I was offered a chance at another internship at Harvard University working with their Athletics Marketing department. This was a very similar role but in Division I college athletics. I worked with the department at football games, both men’s and women’s hockey, and men’s and women’s basketball. This made for a very busy but fun beginning to my senior year. In the second semester I took an internship with the Springfield Armor. This was much more convenient for me and the team was in their first year so I was able to see a lot get built from the ground up.

 

As graduation came closer and I was applying to everything I qualified for in the sports industry. I landed one interview for what I thought at the time was my dream job with the Cleveland Browns. I was a finalist for the position but they chose a local candidate over me. I was crushed but decided this would give me the chance to get my MBA. I started taking courses while working as a bank teller in Chicopee, MA at PeoplesBank. About a year later I took a job as an Investor Relations Associate at SS&C in Windsor, CT. Roughly a year into that job I found a much better fit in my current position as a Cost Analyst at Sun Gro Horticulture in Agawam, MA.

A few other fun facts about me:

-          I LOVE Christmas!

-          I also like shoes, a lot. I think I have more pairs than my wife. I started with basketball sneakers and now have various kinds of sneakers as well as a good number of “dress shoes”. However, I am a bargain hunter so I try to keep my costs down.

-          I like shopping in general, much to the pleasure of my wife. This kind of goes hand in hand with my love for Christmas and my enjoyment of shoes.

      -     I like to travel. I have been to a number of different places inside the United States but I have only traveled outside of the United State 3 times to Canada, Turks & Caicos, and China. I plan to travel much more in the future.