Last week the internship period of Koen Duits, Thijs Seijler and Onno Gras at Slamstox came to an end. These three gentlemen have followed the Slamstox internship at our office in Eindhoven for the past six months. After 6 months of hard work, we ended up gaming in a virtual reality world with the Eindhoven Team present at the Active E-Sports Arena in SX – more about this later – and that was much better than it sounds!
During the internship, Koen, Thijs and Onno learned a lot about (sports) marketing, the American college sports world and about the Slamstox process. In addition to assignments in collaboration with major sports companies such as Techonomy and Triple Double, they have actively helped with customer processes and established contacts with universities and coaches in America. We have also regularly been active with basketball shoot-outs, where the loser was instructed to make sandwiches for the rest. The competitive spirit was always good!
An internship is of course not an internship without a strict assessment. Curious about the rating and highlights of these toppers? Check it out….
Koen Duits
Koen made the most of his internship at Slamstox to further develop himself in the field of sports marketing. After studying for a semester in South Korea, his English and international connections were fine. With his experience as a youth football player at FC Eindhoven, Koen has also brought a lot of football knowledge and network. In addition, Koen has done a very cool research into E-Sports, a fast-growing market that we will focus on in the future. Apart from his substantive knowledge and skills, Koen is really a man of the moment. He likes to perform under pressure, and often knows how to surprise when it really matters. A good example is this 3-pointer, which Koen managed to perform perfectly when he noticed that the camera started to rotate. Nice piece of work Koen! Good to know that Koen will take an extra Spanish course in his next academic year and will most likely start a master’s in Barcelona. They can use such a new Messi there! Koen, it was a great collaboration and we wish you a lot of success with your further plans and ambitions. Be sure to come by for a game of basketball, a sandwich, or just because you miss us… ..!
Thijs Seijler
You might not say it at first, but Thijs also plays golf at a very high level. He is even in the team with our golf specialist Rob van de Vin and our Slamstox athlete Thom van der Sluijs. In the past year Thijs has mainly focused on the golfers within Slamstox. His knowledge of facilities, coaching, college teams and golf rankings has been extremely valuable to our business. In addition, Thijs is currently graduating for his higher professional education at the HAN in Nijmegen. Because Thijs looked much further than just college, he started researching what student athletes are up to after their time in America. For this, he has set up a very cool questionnaire for every student athlete with ambitions to work in the Netherlands after college. His research actually answers the question:
“Do Dutch student athletes in America score better on the 21st Century Skills than students who exercise and study in the Netherlands?”
The results of the survey are also received very positively by Dutch companies, and we have even managed to make introductions between our student athletes and potential Dutch employers for the future. More on this later! Thijs will continue to work with us as a golf specialist after his internship, so we will see him in action much more often. If, in addition to your internship and your thesis, you also manage to score 3 punts and Alley-Oops continuously, then you are a big player!
Onno Gras
During his graduation internship, Onno developed himself into a “digital wizard”. With cool content creation, graphic designs and videos, he has given our social media channels a significant boost. Onno has also been busy with the layout of the student-athlete profiles of our athletes, which are of course very important in portraying our talents in America. Onno’s graduation research focused on organizing an event for Slamstox. This would be the Student-Athlete FSTVL this year. A great idea where we wanted to bring all our student athletes together. With presentations, awards, experience stories and more, this was the ultimate opportunity for student athletes to network and improve each other. We also had an American BBQ, a DJ, American games, challenges, meetings with future employers, and more in store for visitors. Unfortunately we had to postpone the event to next year due to the Corona virus, but what is in store will not end! Despite the fact that Onno has already officially graduated, he is far from finished learning. After the summer holidays, he will start with a Slamstox Traineeship, in which he will complete a program focused on sports marketing in collaboration with a variety of sports companies. After this traineeship he will officially join us as a full-time “digital wizard”. A great opportunity and a great challenge!
In addition to his digital skills, Onno is also a real “extreme” athlete. He is a good snowboarder, runs free, gives kickboxing and cycling lessons, and is going to a surf camp in France with a group of friends (including Slamstox Soccer Player Bob Groenendijk) this summer. An occasional somersault in between is actually not that exciting anymore …
Active E-Sports Arena
To finish the men’s internship periods, we actively started playing virtual reality at the Active E-Sports Arena in SX. A very nice experience. In teams of 2 we were launched in a spaceship in which we took on various challenges. In addition to helping your teammate, you were also challenged on an individual level and you had to outsmart your opponents. Good for the team spirit, coordination, fitness, and it was fun! Definitely worth it for anyone who wants to give it a try with a family gathering, company activity, or something else! The video below of the outside shows how this went….
Onno, Thijs and Koen; Thank you very much for your commitment, energy and the nice period we have experienced with you. We are going to experience many beautiful things in the future. You have developed well, learned a lot and showed that you can work hard, but at the same time have fun with each other. A perfect combination.
FUTURE CHAMPIONS START HERE
Are you also a (sports) marketing talent, or do you want to develop yourself in a different way and contribute to the growth of Slamstox? If you are interested in a fun and educational internship at Slamstox, please send your CV and motivation to info@slamstox.com. All registrations will be processed!
