The New Orleans Saints and Pelicans have named UL Lafayette as their official higher education partner. UL Lafayette spokesperson Eric Maron says the three-year collaborations will give students and recent grads access to internships, practical career experience, and networking opportunities.
“Various areas such as marketing, advertising, management, sponsorships, communications, the whole range of things that the Saints and the Pelicans do on a daily basis, our students will have the opportunity to learn off of that,” said Maron.
The Saints and Pelicans will also fund two annual scholarships for qualifying students. Maron says hammering out the details of the partnership has been about a year in the making.
“We began discussions with them last year and over the course of last year we worked out the different elements that would be involved in this that would provide a benefit both to us and to the sports net programs through the internships,” said Maron.
Maron says the agreement will allow for UL Lafayette to have advertising signage inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the Smoothie King Center, which could be beneficial in student recruitment.
“We could target specifically to the New Orleans students that are going there and their parents that are going to the sporting events as well as other people from Louisiana and southern Mississippi that go to the sporting events,” said Maron.