Albion College student reaches goal with National Hockey League internship

Hannah Osbeck interned with the Nashville Predators

Hannah Osbeck will not graduate from Albion College until next spring, but she already has been to the big leagues and back.

The Chelsea High School graduate, who is finishing coursework to obtain her business degree, was a marketing intern last summer for the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators.

Over the course of just a few months, her marketing background went from consisting of an internship for a “start-up screen printing custom apparel company in Ann Arbor” to organizing community relations events for professional hockey players and running into a few stars in Nashville along the way.

“(I came) face-to-face with country singer Carrie Underwood in the elevator at the arena. Sometimes, there were concerts outside of our arena that I got to enjoy during my lunch break or after work,” she said. “Not a bad lunch break.”

Putting a few star-struck moments aside, the internship was an opportunity for Osbeck to see if she wanted to pursue a career in professional sports, which she said she’d love to do after graduation.

She found the internship at TeamWork Online and was willing to move several states away for an unpaid position because she wanted to make connections in the industry for possible future endeavors.

She was part of a “street team” that planned promotional events through the Predators’ marketing office, and she got to work closely with several players through a program called Rookies in the Community.

“Most of them were around 18 or 19 years old, so they were younger than me, and they were just a lot of fun to bring around and take out to people, because people were excited to see the new faces of the team,” she said.

“The players were just excited to get out and see that people wanted to see them and sign autographs and stuff.”

She said it’s kind of strange to turn on a TV and see some of those guys playing on national broadcasts now, because, to her, “they are these kids who just got out of high school.”

Osbeck said it was a fun work atmosphere, but there were plenty of deadlines to meet.
“I guess it’s good I’ve learned I work well under pressure when there’s a lot depending on the decisions I make and things I do,” she said.

One of her favorite events that had her stamp of creativity all over it was called the Skate of the Union.

Players signed autographs and took pictures, and memorabilia was for sale, leading up to a press conference that announced the Predators’ team captain for the 2010-11 season.

“I worked a lot with coordinating it, and the interns I worked with in the marketing department, we all had a big role in planning that and helping it go smoothly and promoting the event, also,” she said.
-----
As published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on Nov. 28, 2010