{"id":195840,"date":"2023-02-28T07:33:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T12:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=195840"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:57:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:57:26","slug":"division-of-athletics-sport-management-program-team-up-to-provide-real-life-experience-to-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/02\/division-of-athletics-sport-management-program-team-up-to-provide-real-life-experience-to-students\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Team: Division of Athletics, Sport Management Program Provide Real-Life Experience to Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

The effective operation of an NCAA Division I athletic department takes thousands of hours by hundreds of people. Whether is it the production of a large-scale game played before a sold out crowd or making sure an Olympic sports team has everything they need for a successful road trip, no detail is too small to be ignored.<\/p>\n

UConn students in the Neag School of Education\u2019s Sport Management program are required to engage in internship experiences to graduate and many get a unique opportunity to gain first-hand experience in college athletics through a partnership between the school and the Husky Division of Athletics.<\/p>\n

Sport management is a highly-practical field, where hand-on experience through experiential learning is imperative for success after graduation, in addition to classroom studies. Through this collaboration between the Neag School\u2019s Sport Management Program and UConn Athletics, students are able to gain practical experience.<\/p>\n

For many years, sport management students at UConn often earned their internship hours right on campus, but this arrangement relied on those familiar with the program to make individual connections within Athletics. This newly expanded partnership between the Neag school and Division of Athletics ensures a systematic approach, providing students information on the internship opportunities available so they can select one that best meets their needs and interests. In return, the Division of Athletics receives valuable support from interns eager to develop their skills and perform important tasks, especially in these times of budgetary concerns.<\/p>\n

Each spring and fall semester, anywhere from 40 to 70 sport management students enroll in internship related coursework, with approximately 60% to 75% of those internships hosted within UConn athletics.<\/p>\n

\"student
Ethan Basch \u201923 (ED), a senior from Simsbury, Conn., has been a manager for the women\u2019s volleyball team since he was a freshman and his internship is being the senior manager. (Austin Bigoney\/UConn Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An increase in the number of sport management students and the desire to create more opportunities for them at UConn led to this recent collaboration. Jessica Chrabaszcz, UConn executive associate athletic director for competitive excellence and Danielle RoRosa \u201909 (CLAS), \u201911 (ED), a visiting clinical instructor who leads the sport management experiential program in the Neag School, developed the framework for the program along with Brenna Sarantides \u201920 (CLAS), associate director of marketing and digital media in the Division of Athletics. Chrabaszcz had created similar partnerships in previous positions at Yale and Auburn.<\/p>\n

While students are performing their internship, they are also enrolled in a course taught by DeRosa, which requires students to create goals and reflect on their learning as part of the internship.<\/p>\n

Kinley Stephens \u201923 (ED) is currently doing an internship in the Athletics Operations Office and is supervised by a graduate of the sport management program and Assistant Director of Athletic Events and Facilities Jamie Moran \u201918 (ED).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe classroom work and the internship are very complimentary to each other,\u201d says Stephens, who began her college career at UConn Avery Point. \u201cYou can only learn how to run an event so much in a class, so having this internship makes it very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephens has worked home athletic event for virtually every sport at UConn with duties starting two to four hours before a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make sure the venue is all set up and prepared to host the teams and the fans,\u201d says Stephens. \u201cThere are a lot of logistical things to get done. For basketball games, we have to make sure the bench areas are all set up the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

During games, Stephens oversees a group of up to 10 workers who are in charge of such tasks as making sure the court stays clean and safe for the student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI interact with a lot of different people from a lot of different areas in athletics, that I learned about in my classroom work,” says Stephens, who is looking to continue to her career full-time in collegiate athletics operations. \u201cI am so grateful for this opportunity because everything is so interconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to their internship supervisors, sport management students benefit from the more than 30 UConn sport management alumni that are currently working in the Division of Athletics. Those employees include head coaches, assistant coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, and administrators.<\/p>\n

Karina Vital is a second-year master\u2019s student in sport management and her internship is with UConn\u2019s Athletic Marketing Department. She has the lead role for the marketing operations for the baseball and men\u2019s soccer teams and is the game day coordinator for men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy supervisors in athletic marketing emphasize that academics always comes first and have been incredibly accommodating,\u201d says Vital. \u201cWhen we get busy with games, we restructure when we do our office hours to make sure we are not overcommitting ourselves to work when it comes to academics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"student
Max Honafius \u201923 (NEAG) is a Stratford, Conn., native, and is a fourth-year student manager with the women\u2019s basketball program, where he also does his internship. (Austin Bigoney\/UConn Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Max Honafius \u201923 (ED) is a Stratford native, and is a fourth-year student manager with the women\u2019s basketball program, where he also does his internship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe class that really helped me out was in career development, which Danielle (DeRosa) taught,\u201d says Honafius. \u201cWe learned a lot of transferable skills, such as creating a good resume and cover letter and how to do well on an interview. We also a weekly reflection on our internship, which helps you reflect on what you are learning and how you are growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeRosa says the best illustration of the partnership is attending a Husky sporting event in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love attending games take in an incredible athletic event, but to be able to see out student and alumni in action, from sitting behind the bench as a manger of a team to assisting marketing and promotions during timeouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samantha Burke \u2018 23 (ED), a native of North Haven, is actually doing three different internships to see what areas of athletics appeal to her the most. She is working in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball equipment room, serves as a game day assistant at basketball contests, and assists with Learfield Sports \u2013 UConn\u2019s marketing and corporate sponsorship partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach area is so different, which is perfect for me,\u201d says Burke, who is considering attending graduate school. \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what I would like to do, but I know I want to be in the sports field and I am getting great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan Basch \u201923 (ED), a senior from Simsbury, has been a manager for the women\u2019s volleyball team since he was a freshman and his internship is being the senior manager. The number of responsibilities is endless for him \u2013 ranging from practice setup, to arranging for meals on the road for the team, to setting up scouting reports for the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream job is to become a high school athletic director someday,\u201d says Basch. \u201cI want to be able to elevate student-athletes and be a mentor to them. Sports is just so fascinating. No two days are the same and when you know you are making a difference it makes it fulfilling and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This newly expanded partnership between the Neag School of Education and Division of Athletics helps students score valuable career-building experience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":195845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1712,2226,2192,2193,1855,2194,2235,173,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2113],"class_list":["post-195840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-clas","category-fairfield-county","category-hartford-county","category-neag","category-new-haven-county","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 17:05:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195840"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195905,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195840\/revisions\/195905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/195845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195840"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=195840"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=195840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}