Internship takes him out to the ball game

By Dustin Elkin ‘10 - Electronic Media major

This summer is different than any other I have ever had. I am living alone and still in Peoria.

I am living in Peoria by myself because I have my first internship.

I am working for the Peoria Chiefs, the single A affiliate baseball team of the Chicago Cubs. As an Electronic Media (radio/TV) major, I jumped at the chance to work with the team.

I have worked with the Chiefs for 2 months now and I love it. I am learning so much about how production runs in sports. From creating videos to learning how to run a camera on the field, it is such a great experience. My job specifically during the home games is to run the first base side camera. Yes, I am one of the three camera operators and it is so much fun. I get to interact with the fans and the players, and I get a front row seat to every game with the action happening right in front of me.

Personally, I have created the team’s intro video, the pre-game show intro video, the mascot video, and some other fun videos that play on the big screen inside the stadium for all the fans to see. It is such a wonderful feeling for me to watch my videos play in front of thousands of people. Knowing that I did that work makes me feel really good and I am proud of what I do. I do it all for the people around me including co-workers and fans.

The Chiefs have 16 interns with each of us working different jobs. There are production interns, graphics interns, promotion interns, and more. We all have a lot of fun together whether we are working in the office or working during a game. And we work a lot of hours, especially when there is a home game.

Watching and playing sports is one of my passions, and I also love production. So this internship with the Peoria Chiefs was the perfect fit for me. I hope that one day in the near future that this internship will lead me to a similar position because I know that this is what I want to keep doing. I know this summer is going to be a busy one. It will be one that I will never forget and I will continue to work extremely hard as a production intern for the Chiefs.