How one TU student is helping Ravens fans join the Flock

Sara ParksVold has always had a passion for sports. Now she's turning that passion into opportunity, as this fall she is completing a season-long internship with the  Baltimore Ravens. 

As a Baltimore Ravens’ marketing and events intern, ParksVold helps with home games, sets up the team’s RavensWalk pregame experience and assists with in-game fan activities. She also works with fans who might have questions about the gameday experience or about the stadium. 

“I know how much sports can give people, and being an athlete since I could walk, I know how much it means,” ParksVold says. “That’s what drew me to working in sports — knowing how impactful it can be.”

I’m using the networking opportunities I’ve made at TU and connecting them with my class materials to get a real-life understanding of how things work in the professional world.

Sara ParksVold '26

ParksVold also knows breaking into the sports industry takes more than hard work — it takes networking and seizing opportunities.

She learned about the Ravens internship through a Towson University Career Center trip to M&T Bank Stadium, where students attended a career panel with sports professionals.

“A few days before that, I also took part in the Ravens’ Women’s Symposium,” she says. “I’ve used those opportunities to network and find experiences that fit my career goals and my schedule as a student-athlete.”

The Ravens aren’t her first professional jobs. Last summer, ParksVold was a social media intern for the Tampa Bay Inferno women’s tackle football team. And at TU, she’s worked in the athletics department since her sophomore year, supporting social media and live game broadcasts.

As if that wasn’t enough, she runs her own YouTube channel, Adventures with Sara P, which serves as a vlog that allows her to showcase the different aspects of her life.

In fact, that channel is what sparked her academic path. ParksVold started at TU as a political science major but switched to mass communication during her sophomore year.

“Now I’m using the networking opportunities I’ve made at TU and connecting them with my class materials to get a real-life understanding of how things work in the professional world,” she says.

Diving into opportunities

Growing up in Tampa, Florida, Sara ParksVold played nearly every sport her parents signed her up for, from flag football and basketball to gymnastics and baton dance.

Because of those youth sports experiences, ParksVold developed a goal at a young age: to become a Division I college athlete.

A diver on Towson University’s swimming and diving team, she is going headfirst into a new goal: combining her communication skills with her passion for community engagement to build a career in pro sports, ideally the NFL.

“I really like [the NFL’s] community service involvement and to see a big organization give back to communities has been really impactful,” ParksVold says. “Football has been in my life forever. I don’t remember a Sunday afternoon where I wasn’t watching a football game with my dad.”

And while ParksVold knows her dad, Mike, is proud, the lifelong Minnesota Vikings fan won’t be replacing his purple and gold jersey with a purple and black one.

“He told me he’d support me but he won’t wear another team’s logo, which is understandable,” ParksVold laughs. “I think he's just so proud because never in a million years, my mom will say this, they never thought working in the NFL was going to be a thing [for me].”

Miss Maryland and more

Even with classes, Division I athletics and an NFL internship, ParksVold finds ways to stay involved on campus and in the community.

During her time at TU, she has served as co-president of TU’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and as president of Own Your Roar, the athletics department’s mental health advocacy group.

A unique achievement came in 2024 when she was crowned National American Miss Maryland after more than a decade of competing in the program.

“My mom always jokes that I was so determined to win because I kept coming back to these pageants,” ParksVold says with a laugh. “It was the cherry on top of my year.”

Connecting with her local community has always been important to ParksVold. Winning Miss Maryland in 2024 allowed her to launch a program that teaches diving and developing confidence to young girls.

Through diving — and honest conversations — she helps them build confidence.

“I had a coach tell me I was too tall for diving, and it crushed me,” she says. “You don’t have to have a certain body type to do a sport. I want kids to know they can overcome moments like that by believing in themselves.”