{"id":5952,"date":"2019-02-04T15:44:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T20:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=5952"},"modified":"2021-03-05T16:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T21:03:57","slug":"alumni-profile-mary-sykora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/2019\/02\/alumni-profile-mary-sykora\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: Mary Sykora"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary<\/span> Sykora \u201812, is a Senior Operations Manager at Sports and Entertainment Travel where she directs new event design and development, executes tour commission programs, manages several University-related programs and maintains vendor relationships. Mary studied Sport Management in the College of Natural Resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a typical day like for you?<\/h3>\n

When I am in my office, I perform a variety of administrative and operational tasks including client and vendor communication, product development and procurement, event reconciliation and tour preparation. While on-site, I am executing all components of a tour – transportation, hotel accommodations, local sightseeing tours, game tickets, tailgates all while monitoring the guest’s experience and safety.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about your current position?<\/h3>\n

Providing the best experience for alumni and fans traveling to support their teams or to a bucket list sporting event.<\/p>\n

What do you find most challenging about your current position?<\/h3>\n

Work-life-balance. As technology has advanced and we are always available via a cell phone, the expectation of answering emails or calls immediately has become more prevalent.<\/p>\n

What is your best memory of CNR or NC State?<\/h3>\n

Through CNR, we had the opportunity to volunteer at a local elementary school’s field day. It was a great day of interaction and encouragement with the students.<\/p>\n

What was your favorite CNR class?<\/h3>\n

Finance! After studying engineering for a few years, switching to courses involving math that I could see myself applying every day was very refreshing.<\/p>\n

What did you enjoy most about being a CNR student?<\/h3>\n

The support from my professors and adviser, they were always available to lend advise and truly wanted their students to succeed.<\/p>\n

Did you complete any hands-on experiences like internships, study abroad, co-ops or undergraduate research? If so, what did do you and how did it impact you?<\/h3>\n

I was very fortunate to intern at the United States Naval Academy Athletic Association. It gave me hands-on work experience, shaping the line of work I would pursue upon graduating. After working for NC State Athletics during undergrad, it was valuable to learn some of the inner-workings of a smaller Athletic Department and humbling to see the midshipmen’s commitment to the country and their time at the Academy.<\/p>\n

Were you involved in any clubs, hobbies or on-campus activities? Any stories you would like to share about your experiences?<\/h3>\n

Rho Phi Lambda<\/p>\n

Any advice for incoming CNR students?<\/h3>\n

Take advantage of the resources around you and gain volunteer and work experience during undergrad.<\/p>\n

How do you feel CNR prepared you for your current career?<\/h3>\n

The variety of the curriculum touched upon many aspects you can encounter in a professional career. Great idea to require an internship for graduation.<\/p>\n

Do you have any career accomplishments you are particularly proud of?<\/h3>\n

Traveling over 2,000 Ohio State Buckeye alumni and fans to the inaugural College Football Playoff and Championship game.<\/p>\n

Have you held any other positions you would like for us to know about?<\/h3>\n

Event Planner at PrimeSport and Travel Coordinator at USA Baseball<\/p>\n

How did you choose your major and what attracted you to the program at NC State?<\/h3>\n

I started out on the engineering track at NC State, studying biomedical engineering. I couldn’t suppress my love for sports, so began double majoring in Sport Management. As I began to take more of the CNR courses and interning for the Athletic Department, I knew my future would be in the sport management industry so I switched my major solely to Sport Management.<\/p>\n

Is there any personal information you would like to share with students?<\/h3>\n

When I made the decision to switch majors to sport management, I started reaching out to all of the NC State Athletic departments, looking for volunteer opportunities. After reaching out to 20 or so, I finally heard back from the Athletic Ticket Office, they were looking for a student assistant. I eagerly headed in for my first day and was assigned the task of labeling envelopes for the football season tickets. Mind you, there were thousands of envelopes. For 8 hours, I sat and stuck labels and couldn’t help thinking – what have I gotten myself into? Moral of the story, hard work pays off. My work ethic was quickly recognized and I got the opportunity to gain valuable experience with other departments, including media relations and marketing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n

Mary<\/span> Sykora \u201812, is a Senior Operations Manager at Sports and Entertainment Travel where she directs new event design and development, executes tour commission programs, manages several University-related programs and maintains vendor relationships. Mary studied Sport Management in the College of Natural Resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a typical day like for you?<\/h3>\n

When I am in my office, I perform a variety of administrative and operational tasks including client and vendor communication, product development and procurement, event reconciliation and tour preparation. While on-site, I am executing all components of a tour - transportation, hotel accommodations, local sightseeing tours, game tickets, tailgates all while monitoring the guest's experience and safety.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about your current position?<\/h3>\n

Providing the best experience for alumni and fans traveling to support their teams or to a bucket list sporting event.<\/p>\n

What do you find most challenging about your current position?<\/h3>\n

Work-life-balance. As technology has advanced and we are always available via a cell phone, the expectation of answering emails or calls immediately has become more prevalent.<\/p>\n

What is your best memory of CNR or NC State?<\/h3>\n

Through CNR, we had the opportunity to volunteer at a local elementary school's field day. It was a great day of interaction and encouragement with the students.<\/p>\n

What was your favorite CNR class?<\/h3>\n

Finance! After studying engineering for a few years, switching to courses involving math that I could see myself applying every day was very refreshing.<\/p>\n

What did you enjoy most about being a CNR student?<\/h3>\n

The support from my professors and adviser, they were always available to lend advise and truly wanted their students to succeed.<\/p>\n

Did you complete any hands-on experiences like internships, study abroad, co-ops or undergraduate research? If so, what did do you and how did it impact you?<\/h3>\n

I was very fortunate to intern at the United States Naval Academy Athletic Association. It gave me hands-on work experience, shaping the line of work I would pursue upon graduating. After working for NC State Athletics during undergrad, it was valuable to learn some of the inner-workings of a smaller Athletic Department and humbling to see the midshipmen's commitment to the country and their time at the Academy.<\/p>\n

Were you involved in any clubs, hobbies or on-campus activities? Any stories you would like to share about your experiences?<\/h3>\n

Rho Phi Lambda<\/p>\n

Any advice for incoming CNR students?<\/h3>\n

Take advantage of the resources around you and gain volunteer and work experience during undergrad.<\/p>\n

How do you feel CNR prepared you for your current career?<\/h3>\n

The variety of the curriculum touched upon many aspects you can encounter in a professional career. Great idea to require an internship for graduation.<\/p>\n

Do you have any career accomplishments you are particularly proud of?<\/h3>\n

Traveling over 2,000 Ohio State Buckeye alumni and fans to the inaugural College Football Playoff and Championship game.<\/p>\n

Have you held any other positions you would like for us to know about?<\/h3>\n

Event Planner at PrimeSport and Travel Coordinator at USA Baseball<\/p>\n

How did you choose your major and what attracted you to the program at NC State?<\/h3>\n

I started out on the engineering track at NC State, studying biomedical engineering. I couldn't suppress my love for sports, so began double majoring in Sport Management. As I began to take more of the CNR courses and interning for the Athletic Department, I knew my future would be in the sport management industry so I switched my major solely to Sport Management.<\/p>\n

Is there any personal information you would like to share with students?<\/h3>\n

When I made the decision to switch majors to sport management, I started reaching out to all of the NC State Athletic departments, looking for volunteer opportunities. After reaching out to 20 or so, I finally heard back from the Athletic Ticket Office, they were looking for a student assistant. I eagerly headed in for my first day and was assigned the task of labeling envelopes for the football season tickets. Mind you, there were thousands of envelopes. For 8 hours, I sat and stuck labels and couldn't help thinking - what have I gotten myself into? Moral of the story, hard work pays off. My work ethic was quickly recognized and I got the opportunity to gain valuable experience with other departments, including media relations and marketing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary started her first volunteer opportunity labeling thousands of envelopes and feeling skeptical about her sport management major. Today, she executes tour programs and manages over 5 University-related programs as an operations manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"displayCategoryID\":0}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[42],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-5952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-and-friends","tag-parks-recreation-and-tourism-management"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5952"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15372,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5952\/revisions\/15372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5952"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}