Lorena Soria BA ’21 considers herself lucky to work for one of Chicago’s most prominent family-owned businesses, the Chicago Bears.

“It’s such an honor to work for an iconic team like the Bears,” said Soria, an events coordinator. “It’s also incredible to be surrounded by a sport I’ve loved my whole life and be part of an organization that puts family first.”

She credits family matriarch Virginia McCaskey and her son George, who knows all his employees by name, with making her feel a part of the extended Bears family. Soria’s enviable, if rigorous, job duties include handling all event operations on game day and coordinating corporate partner and community events at Halas Hall, the Bears’ Lake Forest headquarters.

One of the things I value about North Park is that you’re building a network of contacts even before you leave.

Soria’s path to her dream job began as a business and economics major at North Park, where she says professors like Brian Vollmert, associate professor of marketing, encouraged her to pursue a career in sports.

“I remember a conversation he and I had so vividly,” Soria recalled. “I knew I wanted to work in sports, but when I told a lot of people that, they were like, ‘what’s your plan B?’ but when I said it to him, he never looked at me funny or questioned it.”

Her love of football sparked right after high school, when she worked at Soldier Field as a part-time member of their event management team, which led to a position as an event operations team member at the Bears training camp post-graduation.

Following an internship with the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, she returned to the Bears in her current full-time position.

Soria also credits her stint as captain of North Park’s women’s soccer team with developing her leadership skills and self-discipline, as well as giving her lifelong friendships.

“One of the things I value about North Park is that you’re building a network of contacts even before you leave.”