Strategy & Special Projects Intern

The Opportunity

Work directly with the Club Director to research and evaluate strategic questions and opportunities affecting AFC Ann Arbor.

This is an advanced internship for a student interested in business strategy, sports business, entrepreneurship, consulting, organizational development, or related fields. Rather than supporting a single functional department, the intern will investigate questions that may span multiple areas of the club.

What You'll Do

• Research strategic opportunities affecting AFC Ann Arbor.
• Benchmark other soccer clubs, sports organizations, and relevant businesses.
• Evaluate potential programs, partnerships, technologies, and initiatives.
• Conduct market and competitive research.
• Develop business cases, research briefs, presentations, and recommendations.
• Support projects involving multiple AFC Ann Arbor departments.
• Help turn ambiguous questions into informed organizational decisions.

Who We're Looking For

Junior, senior, graduate, or MBA-level standing is preferred. Strong candidates may come from business, sports management, economics, entrepreneurship, analytics, public policy, or related programs.

Strong analytical ability, intellectual curiosity, independent judgment, professional communication, and the ability to structure ambiguous problems are particularly important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Much of the work can be completed with scheduling flexibility. Regular match attendance is not required, although selected matches or club events may be useful for particular projects.

Marketing & Communications Lead Intern

The Opportunity

Help coordinate AFC Ann Arbor's year-round marketing and communications operation while contributing directly to communications execution.

The intern will work closely with the Engagement Director to maintain the club's communications workflow across social media, graphic design, website, email, content, and campaigns.

What You'll Do

• Maintain the master marketing and communications calendar.
• Help establish weekly and seasonal communications priorities.
• Coordinate workflow across social, graphics, content, website, and email.
• Track projects, deadlines, and required assets.
• Support ticketing, sponsorship, merchandise, community, and other club campaigns.
• Help maintain consistent AFC Ann Arbor brand, voice, and quality standards.
• Contribute directly to communications execution when appropriate.

Who We're Looking For

Junior, senior, or graduate-level standing is preferred. Strong candidates may come from marketing, communications, advertising, public relations, journalism, sports management, digital media, business, or related programs.

Strong organization, project-management instincts, written communication, professional judgment, and an ability to anticipate needs are particularly important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Home-match participation is expected when needed to coordinate communications or support the Engagement team, but the position does not inherently require attendance at every home match.

Social Media Intern

The Opportunity

Help manage AFC Ann Arbor's day-to-day social presence and play an important role in how supporters, partners, and the broader community experience the club.

The goal is not simply to post content. The intern should help understand what content works, who it reaches, why audiences engage with it, and how social media can strengthen people's relationship with AFC Ann Arbor.

What You'll Do

• Schedule and publish AFC Ann Arbor social content.
• Develop platform-appropriate copy and content.
• Contribute ideas for recurring social features and campaigns.
• Support ticketing, sponsorship, merchandise, and community campaigns.
• Provide planned and real-time matchday social coverage.
• Monitor supporter engagement and help maintain an active digital community.
• Track social performance and identify useful trends.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from marketing, communications, digital media, advertising, public relations, journalism, sports management, or related programs.

Strong written communication, creativity, good judgment, reliability, and an understanding of major social platforms are particularly important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Attendance at AFC Ann Arbor home matches is expected during the playing season. Occasional conflicts can generally be accommodated with advance communication. Away-match attendance is desirable but generally not required.

Graphic Design & Brand Intern

The Opportunity

Help shape how AFC Ann Arbor presents itself visually across social media, digital communications, match promotion, sponsorship, ticketing, merchandise, community initiatives, and other club activities.

A major objective of the role is to anticipate recurring creative needs and develop reusable templates and visual systems that allow AFC Ann Arbor to communicate consistently and efficiently.

What You'll Do

• Create graphics for digital and physical club communications.
• Develop reusable templates for recurring communications needs.
• Help create and maintain the AFC Ann Arbor Seasonal Creative Toolkit.
• Create assets for player announcements, matches, tickets, sponsors, and community programs.
• Support merchandise, apparel, and print creative where appropriate.
• Maintain organized source files, templates, and brand assets.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from graphic design, visual communications, advertising, art and design, digital media, marketing, or related programs.

Portfolio quality and demonstrated design ability are more important than academic class standing. Candidates should provide examples of relevant work.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Most design work can be completed with significant scheduling flexibility. Regular match attendance is not required solely because of this role, although selected match attendance may be useful.

Content & Communications Intern

The Opportunity

Help AFC Ann Arbor tell its story through website content, email communications, media outreach, interviews, and feature writing.

This position goes beyond match recaps and announcements. We are looking for someone interested in developing stories around players, coaches, supporters, partners, community relationships, club initiatives, and the people who make AFC Ann Arbor what it is.

What You'll Do

• Write and edit stories for AFC Ann Arbor's website.
• Support production of email newsletters.
• Draft press releases and media communications.
• Develop player, coach, supporter, sponsor, and community features.
• Conduct interviews and identify original storytelling opportunities.
• Support ticketing, merchandise, event, and campaign communications.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from communications, journalism, public relations, marketing, English, sports media, sports management, digital media, or related programs.

Strong writing, editing, curiosity, factual accuracy, and an ability to identify compelling stories are particularly important. Writing samples are encouraged.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Attendance at every match is not required. Selected home-match attendance is expected when the intern is responsible for interviews, event coverage, or other onsite storytelling.

Photo & Video Content Intern

The Opportunity

Help AFC Ann Arbor capture, preserve, and tell its visual story.

During the offseason, the intern will help organize and rediscover more than a decade of visual history, identify valuable existing assets, and transform historical photography and video into new digital storytelling.

During the playing season, the role increasingly shifts toward original photo and video capture around AFC Ann Arbor's players, supporters, community, partners, and matchday experience.

What You'll Do

• Organize and explore AFC Ann Arbor's existing photo and video library.
• Identify valuable historical material from archives and club social channels.
• Edit existing photography and video into new historical and evergreen content.
• Create short-form videos, highlight packages, retrospectives, and thematic content.
• Capture home-match, training, player, supporter, community, and behind-the-scenes content.
• Support ticketing, merchandise, sponsorship, and other campaigns with visual content.
• Organize new media as part of the club's long-term visual archive.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from film/video production, photography, digital media, communications, journalism, sports media, broadcasting, media arts, or related programs.

Video editing ability, visual storytelling instincts, digital organization, creativity, and examples of relevant work are particularly valuable.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Much of the fall and winter archival and editing work can be completed flexibly. Attendance at AFC Ann Arbor home matches is required during the playing season. Away-match attendance is encouraged where practical but generally not required.

Sponsorship Sales Intern

Multiple positions available

The Opportunity

Develop real business relationships and pursue actual sponsorship opportunities for AFC Ann Arbor.

We are not looking for interns simply to build prospect lists for someone else to sell to. Successful candidates will have opportunities to own relationships and learn the complete process of developing a sports partnership.

What You'll Do

• Identify and research prospective sponsors and partners.
• Develop and maintain an assigned prospect pipeline.
• Conduct outreach to local businesses and organizations.
• Schedule and participate in introductory and discovery meetings.
• Help develop sponsorship concepts and proposals.
• Pursue appropriate partnership opportunities with guidance from club leadership.
• Gain exposure to sponsorship activation and fulfillment.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from business, marketing, sales, sports management, entrepreneurship, communications, hospitality, or related programs.

Prior sales experience is helpful but not required. Strong interpersonal skills, curiosity, persistence, professional communication, and follow-through are particularly important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Much of the prospecting and outreach can be completed flexibly. Attendance at every home match is not required. Selected match attendance may support sponsor hospitality, activation, and relationship development.

Ticketing & Consumer Revenue Intern

The Opportunity

Help AFC Ann Arbor grow attendance, ticket revenue, and customer relationships while gaining hands-on experience with both the technical and business sides of sports ticketing.

A significant focus will be developing new audiences through group ticket sales to businesses, organizations, youth groups, schools, and other communities.

What You'll Do

• Support setup and administration of season and single-game ticket products.
• Maintain accurate customer-facing ticketing information.
• Develop group-sales prospect lists and conduct outbound outreach.
• Support group customers through the purchase and matchday experience.
• Help administer youth and community ticket initiatives.
• Analyze ticket sales, attendance, redemption, and customer behavior.
• Help improve the ticket-purchasing and matchday-entry experience.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from sports management, business, marketing, sales, hospitality, economics, analytics, communications, or related programs.

Organization, comfort learning technology, strong interpersonal communication, customer orientation, and willingness to conduct outbound outreach are important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

Attendance at selected AFC Ann Arbor home matches is expected to support ticketing systems, group arrivals, customer experience, and special programs. Away-match attendance is not required.

Business & Data Analytics Intern

The Opportunity

Help AFC Ann Arbor turn organizational data into useful business insight.

This is not intended to be an internship focused simply on producing reports or dashboards. The larger question is: What does the data tell us, and what should AFC Ann Arbor consider doing differently because of it?

What You'll Do

• Analyze ticket sales, attendance, and customer behavior.
• Evaluate group sales, merchandise, concessions, and other revenue performance.
• Support sponsorship and commercial analysis.
• Connect marketing and communications performance with broader business outcomes.
• Develop recurring business-performance reporting and useful KPIs.
• Create dashboards or other decision-support tools where appropriate.
• Present findings and recommendations to club leadership.

Who We're Looking For

Strong candidates may come from business analytics, data analytics, economics, finance, statistics, business, marketing analytics, sports management, information science, or related quantitative programs.

Strong analytical thinking, comfort with spreadsheets and structured data, attention to accuracy, curiosity, and an ability to translate analysis into understandable recommendations are particularly important.

Schedule & Matchday Expectations

The position offers significant scheduling flexibility. Regular match attendance is not required, although selected home matches may provide useful context or opportunities for onsite observation and data collection.