How a UNI degree led Adamari Barranca to Lambeau Field
How a UNI degree led Adamari Barranca to Lambeau Field
Each morning, Adamari Barranca steps into her office at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, greets her coworkers and begins sorting through her inbox — much like any human resources coordinator. What sets her workday apart, however, is that Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love might stop by to celebrate Victory Monday over donuts with the staff. (Yes, THAT happened.)
“If I hadn’t transferred to UNI, I probably would not be sitting here at Lambeau,” said Barranca. “Transferring was a big, big step in my career.”
It’s been a whirlwind year and a half for Barranca. In that time, she wrapped up her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, completed an HR internship with the Packers and secured a full-time HR role with the NFL team. It’s something her younger self could not have imagined.
“College definitely was not at the top of my head,” the first-generation college graduate admits. “My goal was just to get through high school.”
At first, it was an interest in health care that motivated her to pursue higher education. She worked as a certified nursing assistant in her hometown of Britt, Iowa. She thought she would pursue nursing as a career and began working toward an associate degree at DMACC. Her goal was to transfer to UNI where some of her friends attended and take advantage of the 3+1 nursing program.
After getting to UNI, she began questioning if health care was the right path for her. She was taking biology classes that didn’t spark passion. But it was a connection she made in a biology lab with Associate Professor Jesse Wilcox that set her on the path toward business.
“He was the one that really told me UNI had a great business program, and that's when I started looking into it,” she said.
At the time, Barranca was considering giving up on her bachelor’s altogether. She thought she might return to community college or go back to working as a CNA. But, years later, she knows she made the right decision.
“If I hadn’t transferred to UNI, there would not have been a professor to tell me to follow my gut,” she said. “Jesse told me I could always transfer back to biology if I changed my mind. But if I had stayed at community college, that wouldn’t have been an option because it's not a four-year degree. Ultimately, it's the bachelor's that a lot of jobs look for.”
Prompted by conversations with Wilcox, Barranca made the switch to business administration in the Wilson College of Business. In one of her classes, she heard about working in human resources. She didn’t know much about HR, but started looking into internships and landed an HR internship back home with a local bank. It was there she learned how multi-faceted HR could be and how it fit well with her personality.
“I'm a big people person,” she said. “I love talking to people. I love being able to help people, so I knew if I was going to work at a desk all day, I wanted to do something that still made me feel like I'm doing good in the world.”
When senior year rolled around, Barranca began looking for ways to use her degree. She saw an opportunity for the Packers internship on Handshake and applied, interviewing via Zoom from Jennings Court Apartments. Much to her disbelief, she landed the gig with a start date of the Monday after graduation.
At first, the role primarily consisted of recruitment. But over time, she got to experience the full breadth of HR, from handling benefits to planning employee relations events. A month before her internship ended, she was offered a full-time gig that would allow her to continue some of her internship responsibilities with new ones too.
“I didn't believe it,” she said. “It was hard to grasp my head around the idea. There are 32 NFL teams, 32 HR departments and I made one. I didn't expect to be here at this point in my career”
Now, her job has given her opportunities few can claim — from attending games to seeing snow fall on an empty Lambeau Field to hosting the 2025 NFL Draft.
“I love that I was able to help work the event and experience it all together,” she said. “The draft was a once in a generation opportunity, and I was here for it. Now I'm looking forward to the Luke Combs concert and the college football game coming to Lambeau in 2026.”
While Barranca says the “wow” factor of working for the Packers never goes away, she maintains that she and her coworkers are just everyday people.
“We’re all just normal people following our dreams.”
