With Major League Baseball on hold for now, the Seattle Mariners 12th Annual DECA Day has gone online.

DECA is an organization for high school and college students that helps prepare them for future careers in the world of business, everything from entrepreneurship to marketing, management finance and hospitality.

Under normal circumstances, some 1,500 students from high schools around western Washington would gather at T-Mobile Park before a day game and hear from a panel of Mariners front office employees about the business of baseball.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the in-person event was swapped for a virtual experience that will premiere on the Mariners YouTube channel on Wednesday, May 27, at 10:00 am.

A panel of Mariners employees who represent a variety of different jobs (everything from accounting to social media, media relations and Corporate Partnerships) joined a roundtable on Zoom moderated by Mariners broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith. Questions were submitted in advance by students from participating schools.

Students were interested in topics such as how the team is connecting with fans during the shutdown, the challenges of introducing a young team to the fanbase and creating engaging social media content without baseball. The program closed with each panelist offering students one piece of career advice.

The Mariners plan to host the 13th Annual DECA Day at T-Mobile Park in 2021.

12th Annual DECA Day Panelists

Devin Burns – Ballpark Operations Coordinator. Devin graduation from San Diego State University in 2017. She spent five seasons with the San Diego Padres in Event Operations before moving to Seattle to join the Mariners Ballpark Operations team. Now in her second season, she oversees the ballpark set-up crew and focuses on Game Day Operations and Mariners Internal Events.

Jasmine Garza – Partnership Activation Coordinator. Jasmine works on the Activation team for the Mariners. More specifically, she helps to activate sponsorships for Mariners corporate partners and clients, coming up with creative ways to seamlessly integrate sponsors with the Mariners brand.

Adam Gresch – Baseball Information Coordinator. Adam is from Moscow, Idaho. He moved to Seattle in 2014 to attend the University of Washington. Adam spent two years as an intern with the Baseball Information Department and is entering his second season as a fulltime member of the department handling a variety of tasks including game stats, roster moves, coordinating media interviews with players, etc.

Monica Marmolejo – Controller. Monica, who is a CPA, joined the Mariners organization in 2016. As Controller, she oversees the Accounting/Finance department and is responsible for issuing monthly financial statements to the executive and ownership groups, monitoring internal controls, preventing fraud, reviewing tax implications, and monitoring revenue streams and expenses against the budget. She is fluent in Spanish, which has helped her work directly with the staff of the Mariners Latin American Academy in the Dominican Republic.

Mike Mendolia – Premium Sales. Mike has been with the Mariners for six years and is currently a member of the team responsible for selling and supporting T-Mobile Park’s premium members, including Diamond Club, Premier Seats and Terrace Club.

McKenzie Mitchell – Community Relations and ON BASE Programs Coordinator. McKenzie oversees all youth baseball and softball programming for the Mariners and manages digital and in-park communications for Mariners Care, the club’s non-profit foundation. McKenzie has worked for the Mariners since she was a freshman in college at Seattle University, where she studied Strategic Communications and Spanish.

José Rivera – Social Media Coordinator. Born and raised in the Puget Sound area, Jose is a lifelong Mariners fan. After spending a decade in Arizona, Jose returned to Seattle in 2017 to work for Major League Baseball as an In-Game Social Media Coordinator at T-Mobile Park. He officially joined the Mariners as a full-time employee in 2020.

Tyler Thompson – Marketing Manager. Tyler is a DECA alum in Sports and Entertainment. The Spokane native is a graduate of Eastern Washington. He has been a member of the Mariners Marketing department since 2018.

Aaron Goldsmith – Mariners Broadcaster. Aaron is in his 8th year as a member of the Mariners broadcast team. In addition to play-by-play on radio and TV, Aaron is also involved in non-game related programming including the Hot Stove Show, Cactus League Report, The Wheelhouse podcast with Jerry Dipoto and Inside Corner with Gonzo & Goldy, a weekly interview program on the Mariners YouTube channel cohosted with Mariners pitcher Marco Gonzales.