MORAGA, Calif. — Track & field and cross country student-athlete Mason Labadie is entering his senior year at Saint Mary's and has made quite a name for himself during his time here in college.

LaBadie is a Finance and Business Analytics major with hopes of graduating and getting a job with a successful company in the Bay Area. The Reno, Nev. native has also spent his time at SMC competing in two sports: track and cross country.

In 2017, LaBadie was awarded a spot on the West Coast Conference All-Academic team and was one of four Gaels in the top-10 (7th) in the team victory at the Nevada Twilight Classic. Other highlights of his cross country career include: competing in the NCAA West Regionals his freshman year and finishing top-7 both at the WCC Championships and the Santa Clara Dual meet during his junior year. As a sophomore track athlete, he competed in nine races for the Gaels and ran a personal best in the 5,000m (15:10.62) at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival. Last year, LaBadie ran in seven meets specializing in the 5,000 meters. His personal and season-best of 15:01.67 came during the Oxy Distance Carnival last March.

During the offseason this summer, LaBadie focused his sights on furthering his career path with an internship for Blue Shield of California in San Francisco. He was connected to the position through former cross country and track coach Thomas Kloos. The internship itself was in Small Business Marketing Strategies with a focus in marketing, but he was assigned to complete an audit of the team's annual spending and budget on printed and digital marketing materials.

The opportunity ended up being very fruitful, and LaBadie was a critical piece of the conversations happening at the company. "I ended up uncovering about $300,000 in charges that had been misallocated to the Small Business marketing team," said LaBadie, "I started a conversation across the marketing department about how the budgeting process can become more transparent within the Blue Shield company."

During his internship, he lived in Moraga and commuted into the city everyday on BART. He was able to balance his cross country training schedule with his busy internship and even got to utilize the city scenery for his workouts. "I would often run along the Embarcadero and waterfront in SF before or after work, which was pretty amazing!" he said.

Now in his senior year, LaBadie credits his experiences at Saint Mary's as preparing him for the internship. "I feel like my coursework at SMC prepared me very well for my internship and transitioning into the corporate world, even if it was just for 10 weeks. Outside of just class work, attending workshops and networking events put on by SEBA and the Career Center really helped me prepare for the interviewing process."

When looking back on his summer experience, LaBadie said, "My internship was very valuable to me and my future career as it gave me some exposure to the corporate life, while allowing me to apply skills I have learned in college to real-world business problems. While I do not necessarily see myself working in the healthcare industry after graduation, I do hope to start a career in marketing or data analytics, hopefully in tech."

LaBadie continues to run for the Gaels' men's cross country team this year and will compete in the West Coast Conference Championships on Saturday, October 27. The senior plans to compete for the Saint Mary's track & field team in the spring ahead of what is assured to be a bright future.