InTERPShip Academy Highlight: Eliot Dubick

The University of Maryland’s Maryland Made program empowers student-athletes to become leaders, develop professional competencies, and be conscientious advocates. 

Maryland Made embraces the motto “Be Who You Are, Do What You Want!” Its InTERPship Academy allows Maryland student-athletes to bring that saying to life. Eliot Dubick, a rising junior studying marketing on the Terps’ men’s lacrosse team, landed an internship at American University’s Athletics Department. The attacker works closely with the marketing department to one day turn his experience into a career. 

Dubick, also a Gossett Fellow, is interning for eight weeks and learning more about the marketing team’s operations. He is mentored by Robert Sherman, American’s Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing and Corporate Partnerships. 

“Working in the American sports marketing department has allowed me to understand that everything that these people are doing in the department is for the student-athletes,” Dubick said. “It's almost like I'm giving back in a way which is cool to me.”

The InTERPship Academy is in its ninth year of programming and has welcomed more than 40  student-athletes into its summer 2024 cohort. The number of students in this year’s cohort tripled from last year, making it the largest cohort base since the academy’s inception in 2015.

The academy was created to aid student-athletes in obtaining work experience in their desired industries. Students must work between 15-20 hours weekly while completing a self-reflection journal and attending four professional development sessions. The development sessions include workshops on branding and storytelling, leadership development, networking and resume building. The academy then concludes with a final capstone project presentation.

“Students are given the opportunity to expand upon their networks, build upon industry knowledge and step outside their comfort zones as they begin manifesting what life after college athletics could look like for them,” said Adaeze Alaeze, Maryland’s Program Director of Student-Athlete Career Development. “Throughout the academic year, students had the opportunity to learn a lot of information with our programming and can now implement it in a real-world setting.”  

Dubick, evident in his studies, has always been interested in the marketing side of business. 

“Being a student-athlete and playing sports my whole life, I've wondered how all these organizations get fans and how they get their fans to continue to come to games,” he said.

Dubick has explored that interest in his internship and is finding ways to draw fans to attend American’s sporting events and purchase products from the university. Recently, he helped set up events, introduced sponsors to student-athletes and researched companies and youth organizations that could be potential partners. 

He has also met with coaches from various teams to discuss the marketing plan for the upcoming season. Therefore, Dubick and the rest of the marketing staff understand what the coaches want, allowing them to develop ideas for advertising the teams and their games. 

Dubick describes himself as outgoing and loves interacting with others. The student-athlete has already connected with many different people, many of whom he works alongside every day. 

“All these people are so talented in their fields,” Dubick said. “At the end of the day, they want you to help them, and they're going to help you the best they can. The culture at American, at least in the athletic department, has been awesome.”

He continued. “Playing for Coach Tillman, you always preach ‘Be The Best’ and the importance of having a strong culture. At American, the staff cares so much about each other. They just want athletes to have the best experience they possibly can.”

Dubick hopes to use this experience as a starting point to become a sports agent, director of NIL services at an institution or owner of a marketing firm. 

“I think the InTERPship Academy is giving an opportunity to many student-athletes,” Dubick said. “This is my first internship. … It will help me in the long run because I'm just trying to get as much experience as possible, whether in sports or regular marketing.”

Dubick advises his fellow student-athletes to get involved as early as possible. That way, they can find their niche and a career that interests them early on. Furthermore, he recommends that his peers utilize as many connections as possible. 

“All these people, whether they are alums of a school, alums of Maryland or alums of American, all they want to do is just help student-athletes be successful after college and during their time in school,” he said. 

Dubick thanked the Maryland Made staff and Alaeze for helping him land his internship with the InTERPship Academy. 

“The job that she (Alaeze) has is so important to us student-athletes at Maryland,” Dubick said. “You have to start somewhere. … I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity that she and the rest of the Maryland Made staff created.”