Gail Cunningham

I moved away from my home in California a month after graduating high school to Knoxville, Tennessee where I sported the orange and white as a Volunteer. Attending school helped prepare myself for the trials and tribulations of college life as well as get a taste of a career I always dreamed of pursuing, working in the professional sports industry. I had the opportunity there to help out a local sports complex for kids with a marketing campaign through my advertising class. I spent the entire term meeting with the owners, writing radio spots and newspaper ads, creating, filming, and editing viral video ads, redesigning the website, establishing social media pages, and an occasional break playing with the kids and swinging into the foam pit. With all the hard work and effort put into that project and helping a local, independent business get their feet off the ground was a huge personal accomplishment that only fueled my growing passion to work in sports, but solidfy that this is what I want to do.

I'm always looking for an opportunity to move ahead. So, at the end of the 2011-2012 school year, I transferred schools to a private 4-year in Charlotte, North Carolina called Johnson & Wales University where I am currently working on a Sports/Entertainment/Event Management degree with a concentration in Sports Marketing and Coaching/Administraion out of their Hospitality College. I knew the move would be a perfect opportunity to not only work on such a specific degree but be in an area that certain professional sports call Charlotte home. After a month of moving there, I was working three jobs and going to school full-time. My dreams of turf fields and packed stadiums were starting to blossom after earning a job with the Carolina Panthers in their Guest Relations department and the Charlotte Bobcats in the Team Store.

As of now, I am working towards my degree looking for any opportunity to work and volunteer in the sports industry that would help me attain valuable experience that I can carry with me to my future career.