Gia Cerulli

I've been working since a very young age - I started working at a young age and I've had to, majority of the time, provide for myself. I started working and have had multiple jobs consistently since I was young. When I always ask my bosses how I got my internship, they always say it's because I had so much on my resume and it showed how well-rounded I was, that I was doing so much at my age in such a short period of time. I would say my work ethic - it's weird to talk about myself in that aspect because I don't like saying how I am as a person, I'd rather have other people who I work closely with tell me. But when I ask them those types of questions, I always get that the work ethic and juggling a lot at once, and having a maturity level for someone my age, has just gone a long way. I've always been working towards something and never just sitting back and going to parties or doing kid stuff. I've always been like, alright, what am I gonna do now, job-wise? What can I do more that I'm not already doing? I'm always looking for room of improvement. I'm on the more junior side of the organization, but I work with executives on a daily basis, I work with ownership on a daily basis, which is a lot of people in the organization don't get to do. So just being grateful that I have those opportunities and always looking on ways I can improve what I'm doing.

The best career advice I've ever received came from my current boss, who was the first face I met at the organization when I was an intern. When I was younger, I always got a little nervous with speaking to crowds and speaking to the press and things like that, and I would get tripped up if I made a mistake. But he always taught me that no one knows if you make a mistake unless you go and stutter upon your words - no one's gonna know what you're saying is a mistake. So always keep that in mind and embrace the butterflies, because everyone gets butterflies nowadays. You'd be weary of someone who doesn't get butterflies when speaking to the press or speaking to a large group, so embrace the butterflies. No one knows that you're going to make a mistake unless you make it evident or you apologize for it, and just kind of have that confidence when going into those situations.

I would tell them that if you really want something for yourself, then just do whatever in your power to get yourself there. When I was an intern, I never liked saying no to my bosses when they asked me for something, even if it was something near to impossible to achieve - I never said no, I just did it. I somehow, when I look back on it now, I just got it done. So I would just say, if you really want something, just figure out a way to get it done. Going back to it, everyone gets nervous, everyone gets butterflies, and if you have confidence, no one's gonna know that's how you feel. Just step into a room with confidence and figure out a way to get things done, and that will take you so far, which it has taken me so far thus far. It hasn't failed me yet.

The biggest challenge I would say is that we just have so many requests that come in, and it's always extremely hard to get resources or to get contributions, grants, whatever it is, to where they need to be. Obviously, being with the New York Yankees, a lot of eyes are on us, so it's just being very strategic in where we partner with and where we extend our resources. That is probably the biggest challenge - making sure that everything is up-to-date, factual, and just that we're always on it, because it's a lot to always have eyes on us. People will always try to bend what we do or stretch the reality, or whether it be just fabricating things all together. So it's really having to always be on point and always be factual, always be 100% sure of things on a day-to-day basis. But we've been doing what we've been doing for so long that we're just very well-oiled and very organized. We haven't, thankfully, come into, knock on wood, any issues or true obstacles that we haven't been able to navigate as an organization.

One of my biggest values that I go by every day is that I treat everybody the same. Whether it be our housekeeping crew or our top executive, I treat everybody the same. Doesn't matter who they are, you treat everybody with the same respect. When I look at internship candidates and things like that, I try to gauge their values based off a piece of paper, where they've worked, their work ethic - it's all woven into their values. And one of the first things I tell them when they get here is that you treat everybody the same. You shouldn't be treating an executive any different than you would be treating the grounds crew or anything like that. So I like to give everyone the same respect, if that makes sense. Especially working with community, it goes such a long way. Getting to know our neighbors and just treating everybody equally, I think, is a big value that a lot of people, especially in our younger demographic, is kind of not keeping in mind so often anymore. And I think it's a great thing to maintain.