Hope and (Olympic) dreams

Four-year-old Monica Hope spent days watching triathlon competitions at the 2000 Summer Olympics — a half-hour at a time. The Spencerport, N.Y., native was allowed just 30 minutes of television a day, so her parents recorded the games.

“It was a huge commitment, but even then I understood how amazing it would be to compete for your country and win a medal,” she says.

In elementary school Hope’s answer to “What do you want to do when you grow up?” was “Get straight A’s in high school and go to the Olympics!”

Fast forward to 2017. Hope rows, bikes, runs and played lacrosse in high school, but isn’t an Olympic-level athlete; yet, she made her Olympic dreams come true.

Hope, who will be a senior this fall at Binghamton University, is spending the summer in Colorado Springs, Colo., as the sole intern for USA Triathlon.

Tuition troubles

When Hope headed home for winter break in 2015, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to return to Binghamton University. The then-sophomore had good grades and great friends, but she didn’t have enough money to continue paying tuition.

During the break, Hope created a vision board to figure out her next step. “I thought to myself, ‘If I had all the resources and time that any career required, what would I want to do?’,” she says.

Hope ultimately identified four criteria: “I want to work somewhere it’s sunny all the time, I want to bike to work, I want to work with the highest-caliber athletes and I want the financial security to buy a local cup of coffee every day.” She realized an internship would help her achieve these goals and began searching for opportunities.

“I decided then that I wanted to get an internship with the U.S. Olympic Committee [USOC] or one of the National Governing Bodies, and Colorado Springs is where I was going to do it,” Hope says. “But, I also knew it wasn’t a job you get by putting your resume on a table. I knew I was going to have to be very distinguished from other people to get that internship.”

Hope understood she had to build her resume and skill set to land an Olympic internship and possibly a future job. With renewed focus and a loan co-signed by her parents, she returned to Binghamton with a plan to apply in spring 2017 (her junior year) for a summer internship.

Resume building

Over the next year, Hope enhanced her resume, taking on new jobs, internships and assistantships on campus in wellness- and fitness-related areas and serving on several University committees. Off campus, she worked at DICK’s Sporting Goods as a footwear associate. Hope also founded and became president of the Binghamton Chapter of Fit University. She continues to hold several of these positions and is on Binghamton Crew, a student-run rowing team.

“I did everything I could so if I got an interview, I had multiple experiences I could talk about,” Hope says.

A unique opportunity

Hope also participated in the 2017 Team USA Internship Symposium, a three-day workshop for people hoping to work in the Olympic Movement or sports industry. There, she met current interns and hiring managers for the USOC and their National Governing Bodies.

“After the panel discussions you’re in these long lines of people waiting to meet the speakers, and it’s hard in a short amount of time to say something memorable,” Hope says. “You want to genuinely connect with them and not be just another person they shook hands with.”

As difficult as it was to make personal connections during the workshop, Hope says follow-up after the event was even harder. “I was virtually tapping them on the shoulder through LinkedIn and email saying, ‘Hi, remember me? I’m the 5’ 4” rower from Binghamton who tore both my ACLs and we spoke on _ night of the internship symposium.’”

A leap of faith

Hope initially planned to apply to three Olympic internships, but “took a leap of faith” and applied only to USA Triathlon.

“Triathlon is a multisport, so you work with different business sectors. In terms of exposure and getting to know people within the Olympic community it’s really great,” Hope says. “USA Triathlon will help me grow in terms of strategic development and knowledge of sports management.”

Close to 5,000 people applied for USOC summer internships. There were nearly 400 applicants for the USA Triathlon internship alone; 18 were selected for a phone interview and eight were chosen for a Skype interview.

Hope answered dozens of questions throughout both interviews. She was confident, having spent hours preparing.

“I practiced by taking a list of interview questions and answering each one with an action, a result and what I had learned from it,” she says. “Everything was at the tip of my tongue when they asked me a question. I knew what my skills were and how to describe them.”

Finally, Hope got a call from Colorado and was offered the internship. She fell down on her knees in the hallway and started to cry. “They asked me if I had any questions and all I could think of was, ‘No, I don’t have anything else to say!’”

Coming full circle

Recalling her vision board and the criteria she identified, Hope says things have come full circle.

“I’m working in sunny Colorado Springs; the USA Triathlon headquarters is about 8 miles from where I live at the Olympic Training Center, so I can ride my bike to work; I’m supporting Olympians; and it’s a paid internship, so I can buy a cup of coffee every day,” she says. “Everything I visualized has come to fruition.”