NCAA internship helped Natasha Reyes find her place in sports

Before graduating from Oregon, Natasha Reyes embraced as many different experiences as possible.

She always had been fascinated by the power of storytelling in sports, which led her to seek a degree in public relations, but that did not stop her from pursuing other interests across the industry.

She was heavily involved in the school's athletics department, financial wellness center and student-led sports business club, and her college career also included internships with Excel Sports Management and the Manning Passing Academy football camp. These experiences allowed her to touch several sides of the sports industry, from communications and player development to event management and business performance.

So when she discovered the NCAA Postgraduate Internship Program, Reyes saw yet another opportunity to learn more about working in sports. 

"I was trying to be proactive and knew that it was going to be my last year of college and had started to learn about the different kind of rotational or yearlong programs," Reyes said. "When I looked at the NCAA one, I was like, 'OK, wow. Like, there's a wide range of intern positions. There's a lot of ways that maybe my experience would play into some of these different roles.' And I decided to learn a little bit more about executive affairs."

Once accepted for the 2022-23 cohort as the executive affairs intern, Reyes made the move from Eugene to Indianapolis — a big change for the El Paso, Texas, native.

Her time at the national office was marked by seismic change, with Mark Emmert exiting the NCAA presidency during her internship and former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker stepping into the post. Reyes' responsibilities included assisting with the planning and execution of staff events, supporting the NCAA president and senior leadership with public engagements, and carrying out various executive events at the Men's and Women's Final Fours. 

While navigating these duties amid such a shift taught her a great deal about what kind of work higher-ups in the office do, Reyes learned even more about the kind of people they were.

"I wasn't necessarily ready for how much change the NCAA was going through. … It did feel like a whirlwind at times," Reyes said. "Anybody that I reached out to at the national office was ready to grab a lunch, grab coffee and talk about their experiences. Everyone was so beyond helpful and investing in your own professional development journey, and that was also a really exciting part. And the people at the national office are some of the smartest that I've ever met in my life. To be around that caliber of individuals that one, really care about the work that they were doing for student-athletes, but also willing to kind of invest in me as an intern, was a pleasant surprise."

This sentiment carried across every level of the office, including people like Baker, Senior Vice President Kevin Lennon, Reyes' supervisor Sarah Jones and her assignment mentor Mike Massa. Working and learning from them opened Reyes up to different methods on how to lead a team and operate at an efficient level.

While she was able to network vertically with the staff she worked with, Reyes also made sure to network horizontally with her fellow interns, creating relationships that were strong enough to breed invites to be in one another's weddings.

"It just really shows that the cohort can (turn into) friends for life," Reyes said. "These are people that I look to, not only professionally for the success that they've had in their careers and when I need advice or just a listening ear of someone that knows and can be supportive, but also just personally as great friends and great people. They're driven, they're ambitious and they get stuff done. And that's just the great quality of people that I look for in my life. PGIP is full of them."

After finishing her internship, Reyes earned a position at Sport Oregon, a nonprofit sports commission geared to bringing social and economic impact through sport. She currently works there as the director of partnerships. In that role, she works with investors and sponsors for events and leads the processes of revenue generation and business development for the organization. 

Looking back at her time as an intern, seeing the kind of relationships that organizations such as the NCAA and Indiana Sports Corp have and the impact they can make on a community by hosting sporting events played a major role in her pursuing the work she does now.

Just as she tried to do during her year at the national office, she encourages current and future interns to take advantage of the time they have by trying as much as possible.

"Even if you feel you're a little bit interested … you don't know what you don't know," Reyes said. "Someone could put you on a different path or educate you on something that maybe you want to learn a little bit more about, and you never know how it could play a part in your career."