The roaring of the crowd in Sanford Stadium. Calling the Dawgs echoing across the field. The thundering of players sprinting towards the end zone. For every fan, these are the sounds we live for on game day. For Sophia Desderio, they’re a reminder that she’s exactly where she belongs.
A senior at the University of Georgia’s Grady College, Desderio has made Georgia athletics a part of her academic life, her career, and her every day. However, it would probably surprise those who meet Desderio to learn that she actually started as a finance and real estate major. It wasn’t long before she realized she was studying the wrong playbook.
“I always knew that I wanted to work in sports, but it felt like an unattainable dream. I had to find a way to make it real, which is where UGA came in,” says Desderio.
She changed majors to public relations, added sport management and business minors, and dove into her courses with enthusiastic abandon. She remembers taking a Sports Media and Society course and was excited to go to it every day. That’s when she knew for sure she was on the right path.
Interning with the Eagles
During the school year, Desderio works in the UGA Athletic Association ticket office, assists with donor relations, and handles social media accounts for the UGA Men’s Club Lacrosse Team.
“Working at the UGA ticket office was how I got a first look at what a career in sports looks like,” says Desderio. “It’s led to so many other opportunities, including my summer internship with the Eagles.”
Desderio worked as a ticket and fan services intern with the Philadelphia Eagles. On her first day, she looked up from the front desk to find head coach Nick Sirianni just a foot away. It was surreal to be directly involved with the organization she had grown up cheering for.
Desderio went from sitting in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field to working behind the scenes at the very stadium where she grew up watching her heroes play as a fan. She got to be a part of the operation—fielding phone calls, running logistics, and occasionally finding herself face-to-face with an NFL legend.
From mailing fan packages to assisting with massive community events like the Eagle Autism Foundation’s annual 5k, Desderio was one of the many unsung MVPs working behind the scenes.
“Working at the UGA ticket office was how I got a first look at what a career in sports looks like. It’s led to so many other opportunities, including my summer internship with the Eagles.”
The Impact of Athletics
Though she ultimately plans to leverage the hustle of ticketing into a more creative role, Desderio says that the ticket office has been a perfect foundation for her career and a good fit for her personality. It’s a job where she can meet different people, and no day is the same. Every moment offers a chance to make someone’s day unforgettable.
One moment she won’t soon forget happened during a soccer match at Lincoln Financial Field. A mother and daughter approached Desderio for help. The daughter was a young girl with autism and the mother only spoke Portuguese. Both were overwhelmed by the heat and the chaos of the crowd, but despite the language barrier, sports fans always find a way to communicate.
Desderio used hand signals and Google Translate to bridge the gap. She got them out of the blazing sun and found them covered seats so they could enjoy the match.
She says, “It was one of those moments where I thought ‘This is what it’s all about.’ People imagine a ticketing internship to be pretty mundane, but my real job is creating an amazing experience for people and helping them love sports the way I always have.”
