Steele Interns: Then and Now

The location of the Steele Internship Program at baseball’s foremost history museum attracts the attention of many college students who want to work in the sports industry. But the term ‘sports industry’ casts a wide umbrella containing any number of different careers. For students, choosing a career path is often a fluid process; interests and desires can fluctuate, and hands-on training offered through the Steele Internship can help them see if a certain field is a good fit for them.

Sarah Wasser, a membership intern at the Hall in 2011, originally wanted to be a special education teacher before switching to communications studies at SUNY Brockport. She was thinking about shifting gears once again when she applied to the Museum.

“I realized that I loved working in sports and loved the atmosphere and the working family you develop, but communications just wasn’t for me,” Wasser said. “So a family friend suggested I apply for an internship at the Hall of Fame.”

“I was late coming in, but there was a spot open in the membership department, and I just totally took off from there.”

Molly Becker was a programming intern last summer who recently began her job as a programming and membership coordinator at the St. Louis Cardinals Museum and Hall of Fame. Becker is in charge of quite a bit at the museum, from adding new members to designing bobblehead giveaways to coordinating school group visits and home game programming at Busch Stadium. The St. Louis native said she couldn’t envision being in her current role before coming to Central New York.

“I was just looking forward to being in Cooperstown and didn’t know right away that it would lead to a career in sports,” Becker said. “But when I got back to St. Louis, I immediately began looking up if the Cardinals had a similar programming position. They didn’t initially, but the position I have is brand new this summer and I feel as if they designed it just for me. It’s a perfect fit, and I didn’t know I even wanted to work in that field until it was presented to me in Cooperstown.”

Zides worked in the Museum’s Giamatti Research Center, answering visitors’ questions about baseball history and giving them access to the Library’s books, photographs and newspaper clippings. Calling it “one of the greatest experiences” of his life, Zides said the internship helped him realize his professional calling.

“I’m a very empathetic person, and I love helping and educating people,” said Zides. “It was pleasurable for me to do things for people and make them happy.”

Zides did gain more experience in baseball after Cooperstown, as an intern for the Pawtucket Red Sox and temporary employee for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After Tampa, however, Zides drew upon his budding passion for helping others to switch careers. After earning his master’s degree in education from UMass-Boston, Zides now works as a director of special education for The Home for Little Wanderers, a Boston-area non-profit that provides human services for displaced children.

“My co-intern and I were given complete autonomy with processing the collection of items from baseball games,” Flanagan said. “I had never worked in museum collections prior, so I struggled at first, but my co-intern had some experience and helped guide me. In retrospect, letting us navigate the process and figure tasks out on our own was really the best way to learn.”

After her internship, Flanagan struggled at first to find work in a harsh economic climate where archival jobs were often cut first. After landing a job as an assistant curator and archivist for the Schenectady County Historical Society in New York, she was recruited by Anheuser-Busch to work as an archivist at their headquarters in her hometown of St. Louis.

“Processing museum collections certainly added some new and valuable experience to my resume,” Flanagan said. “In fact, most of what I process now at Anheuser-Busch are 3-D objects. Also, giving artifact spotlights helped me improve my public presentation skills. I do presentations on A-B history to a lot of new employees, wholesalers, and Global Management Trainees, and that first impression of myself, as a representative of the archives, and company history is vital to them remembering that we're a resource they can consult in the future.”

In addition to all the valuable professional lessons they learned, all of the former interns we talked to said one of the things they enjoyed the most was the camaraderie they formed with each other in just 10 short weeks.

“I consider the other interns and my supervisors to be very dear and special people in my life,” Zides said, while Wasser added the she cherished the “sense of family” at the Hall.

And the family extends beyond just the interns and Museum employees.

“I loved working with the visitors and giving tours in the Plaque Gallery,” Becker said. “We had all these special events for the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s ‘Luckiest Man’ speech and the tours were extremely popular; they were definitely one of my fondest memories.”

As these former interns re-visit and reclaim old friendships this weekend, the process of adding more young professionals to this family is just beginning. Applications for the 2016 Steele Internship Program are now open to students who have just completed their sophomore year of undergraduate school, or have just graduated in May 2015.

“Take notes and immerse yourselves in the wonderful variety of sessions and programs offered to the interns, but also remember to have fun,” Flanagan said. “Go to baseball games with the group, take day trips on the weekends, and make traditions like ‘Ice Cream Fridays.’”

Wasser added that the most important trait you can bring is energy.

“As long as you have the experience and you’re willing to put in the work and time – and have the energy and enthusiasm to work in this industry – you will go far,” she said, “regardless of what your school or your background is.”