Delaney Colson: Recent UMaine grad hits homerun with Baseball Hall of Fame internship

As a lifelong baseball fan, Delaney Colson landed her dream internship at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York last summer after earning her undergraduate degree in history and secondary education from the University of Maine.

“It was really the perfect intersection between both of my majors, combining teaching and education with history and my love of baseball,” says Colson, who is from Rutland, Massachusetts and grew up cheering for the Boston Red Sox.

She was one of just 19 interns out of more than 500 applicants to be selected for the Hall of Fame’s summer 2023 Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Youth Leadership Development, which provides opportunities for college students and recent graduates to work in various positions at the museum. Her internship was in the education department, where she helped coordinate in-person and virtual field trips, created exhibits and programs for general museum visitors, and developed free lesson plans for classroom teachers.

“I helped create or update lessons for all grade levels on topics like science, economics, labor history, geography and multicultural diversity, pretty much any subject you could think of, we were able to tie it to baseball, which was really cool to see,” Colson says.

One of the highlights of the summer was assisting with the hall of fame’s annual induction ceremony in July, where Colson says it was all-hands-on-deck as the museum welcomed Class of 2023 inductees Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen.

Colson also learned how to handle artifacts and wrote articles for the Hall of Fame’s website. She penned one article about the bat that hall of fame Red Sox slugger and current New England Sports Network (NESN) broadcaster Jim Rice used when he hit his 301st home run. She wrote another piece about Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, the first Black player for the Red Sox, the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate.

By the end of the summer, she had also developed museum tours of her own, including one celebrating the 50th anniversary of Roberto Clemente’s induction into the Hall of Fame. 

“I wasn’t just sitting in an office all day. I was able to gain a lot of experience creating tour scripts and speaking to members of the public,” she says.

Colson says she feels like she lucked out with a lot of her professors at UMaine, both in history and education. For example, during her senior year, she took a course on American immigration with professor of history Anne Knowles, during which she researched the immigration of baseball players to the United States from the Dominican Republic for her final paper.

“Professor Knowles was incredibly supportive and connected me to some materials and researchers that helped me when I was writing that paper,” she says.

In the College of Education and Human Development, Colson says she learned a great deal from her student teaching seminar supervisor, Connie Ronco, as well as her mentor teacher at Old Town High School, Michael May.

“I can’t say enough nice things about them,” she says. “They were always encouraging me to try new things in the classroom. Sometimes I would bring up an idea, and they might suggest some changes. But usually they would say: ‘If you think you can do it, give it a shot.’”

Outside of the classroom, Colson was a member of the marching band and pep band all four years in Orono. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi (KKPsi), the honorary fraternity for band members, and served as president of the UMaine chapter her senior year.

“That introduced me to an incredible group of people, some of whom became my closest friends,” says Colson. “And I really think running for president and serving in that role gave me the confidence to apply for the internship and push myself to ask for extra projects when I was at the Hall of Fame.”

Now that she’s graduated, Colson continues to pursue her passion for baseball. Since 2021, she has worked as an ambassador for the minor league Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. She helps arrange public appearances for the team mascot, gives tours of the team’s stadium, and writes articles for the team’s website. 

She also recently accepted a job as a paraprofessional at middle school in her hometown.

“I’m so grateful for the amazing, supportive community at UMaine, and I know that no matter what comes next, I’ll be able to handle it thanks to the friends and mentors I met during my time there,” Colson says.

Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu