Sport Management Alliance offers different job opportunities

One group on campus is preparing its members to enter into the field of managing sports teams.

The Sport Management Alliance organization offers sport management majors a place to gather together, while also offering an opportunity for students to hear about jobs in their major that they may not have previously heard of.

“Every time you come to one of our meetings, you are meeting someone new who has a job that maybe in,” said co-chair and graduate student Madison Frain. “It’s such a huge benefit because you can learn something that you may never know that you could do if you hadn’t come to hear them speak.”

The group has monthly meetings, usually on Tuesday, in Patterson Hall. A different speaker comes every month, Frain said.

Social Network Manager and senior Victoria Grasso said that the meetings function to inform and prepare members for future jobs.

“It’s about making the people involved a little more informed and prepared when going out into the sports industry,” Grasso said. “We bring in a lot of speakers. We normally bring in speakers that are involved in the industry.”

The speakers that come in have a big impact on the group, according to members of the Alliance.

“I feel that they provide insight into the real world,” SMA member Max Morris said. “A lot of what some of our speakers say is stuff that we have already heard in the classroom, but hearing it from another person certainly doesn’t hurt.”

Morris said many of the speakers helps members with internship opportunities.

“Many also understand what position we’re in as students and were given an in along the way from someone else, so they’re more than willing to pass that along and try to help us,” he said.

The group has about 30-40 participants, but they are still looking for more people to join.

“We’ve been trying to use different forms of social media platforms,” Grasso said. “We use Twitter and Facebook but we are still trying to grow.”

The organizations has already opened many opportunities and benefited many involved.

“I was interested in adding KSS (Kinesiology and Sports Studies) as a second major, so I attended a Sport Management Alliance meeting and found it to be beneficial,” Morris said. “From there I later ran for the position of Professional Development Chair and was then responsible for bringing in speakers. I did this because I felt that it would help from a networking standpoint. In this position, it allowed for me to speak to a handful of different people in different positions across the Midwest.”

Not only has it given many opportunities, but for some upperclassmen it allows them a chance to see underclassmen getting excited to be a part of the field of study.

“I like being involved,” Frain said. “I like being able to meet some of the younger people in sports management. I like seeing them getting involved and them getting excited because I was that person once, too.