Francisco Marcano-Santos (ST, 2022)
Sports have always been a major part of my life. For as long as I can remember, I have played some type of sport: baseball, football, tennis, soccer, or golf. Growing up, it almost seemed like there was no such thing as an “off-season” for me. The life lessons I’ve learned through playing these sports over the years have stuck with me and continue to motivate me every day.
Because of my sports background, I always wanted to pursue a career in the field. Before coming to the Brandcenter, I didn’t know what that might look like or how I might achieve my goal. But, just in my first semester as a strategy student, my career opportunities have become more and more clear.
Thanks to the Brandcenter, I learned about the Adidas CREATOR LAB: a platform hosted by Adidas to engage with students at select universities. It’s one of the ways that the company identifies future talent. When the CREATOR LAB was shared with Brandcenter students last fall, I immediately knew that it was something that I really wanted to get involved with, so I applied through the Brandcenter and was accepted.
The CREATOR LAB was a two-part experience. The first part took place over two weeks in the fall. Students like myself participated in a brief-like competition, in which Adidas provided a prompt for a real business problem and asked students to create a solution.
After submitting ideas to the CREATOR LAB, Adidas then invited the students whose projects and ideas they liked to participate in the next step in the process, called the “CREATOR CAMP.” This event took place virtually via Microsoft teams, and I was lucky enough to participate. The camp was essentially a virtual workshop and recap event in which the selected students joined a panel of Adidas employees and heads of departments to discuss each project and receive any relevant feedback. Towards the end of the session, the conversation shifted to talking about the summer internship that Adidas offers to students, which I now plan to apply to.
The best takeaway from this experience was probably the chance to grow my professional network and kickstart my career path. Over the course of my experience, I got the chance to meet students from all over the country who I might not have interacted with otherwise. In addition, I had the chance to work with some of the top creatives and executives at Adidas, which was monumental—especially for someone who eventually hopes to break into the industry.
This experience has really helped guide my career pathway and open up new opportunities. I’m so grateful for having had the chance to work with Adidas and the time I’ve spent so far at the Brandcenter.
Francisco Marcano-Santos (ST, 2022)