Week 8: Cannonball
For the last week of our internship, we returned to where it all began: Cannonball. We had the opportunity to expand on one of the ideas we pitched the first week. Week one, we were tasked with creating strategies to bring the STLMade Movement to the college level. One of our tactics was to create a student club for each St. Louis colleges.
This past week, we had the opportunity to expand this idea. We focused specifically on St. Louis University. Our target market for this club was student-athletes. Throughout the week, we planned step-by-step what SLU would need to do to actually form this club and make it successful. The club would be organized by SLU athletics’ two academic coordinators, with help from a coach’s advisory board. Each week, athletes would have the opportunity to go to different workshops and community outreach events that will help them become more well-rounded and professional individuals.
We also planned five bigger events: a kick-off party, a keynote speaker, a career fair, an internship program and a gala. The internship program would create an opportunity for athletes who have summer practice to still obtain professional experience through one of the STLMade stakeholders. For our keynote speaker, we thought an inspiration story from Larry Hughes, Dr. Chaifetz or another influential SLU alumnus would be a fantastic experience for students. The career fair would be specifically for businesses participating in the modified internship for the athletes. The kick-off party and gala are more self-explanatory, ringing in the start of the club and celebrating its accomplishments at the end of the school year.
In many ways, week eight was very different than week one. We had the opportunity to dive deep into one of our own ideas, which showed us that the things we did this summer really could have an impact and be activated. During week one, part of our challenge was that we didn’t know each other at all. Now that we’ve spent eight weeks together, we know how to operate well as a team. That being said, one of our teammate, Alyssa Dosmann, had to “hop” out early. Alyssa, we missed you this week and wish you the best of luck in Dallas!
The last way this week was different than the first was because we were working on two presentations at once. Like always, we had a presentation to give to Cannonball to discuss our ideas for our assignment. However, we also had to give a presentation at a wrap-up party on Friday night at Coolfire Studios. This presentation reviewed everything we did this summer: each assignment we completed and each stop on the Hop. It was crazy to see how much we accomplished together in just eight short weeks.
We’d like to thank Tracy Whelpley, Emily Oswold, Kris Hoelscher, Amy Weiss and Joe Bishop from Cannonball for all of their help this week. Additionally, thank you to Kyle Ingram and Ryan Donlon from Billiken Sports Properties and Leah Wilson from STLMade for allowing us to work on your brand!
Lastly, we’d like to thank Andrea Spurlock, Matt Beebe, Vinnie Schneider and Kristy Tucciarone from Ad Club STL for everything they did for us this summer! This experience wouldn’t have been the same without them!
With that, it’s been a great ride. We’re officially “hopping” out!
Best,
Jacob Smith, Jordan Moore, Josh Fackler and Nicole Newman