New group helps to network
Vince Lombardi is a household name among football fans. Known for his motivational speeches, his career as a sports manager, as well as countless others in sports management, will form the foundation to the University of South Dakota’s newest club.
The Sports Management Alliance is a new club on campus that students in the sports management program created to have something outside of academics that deals with the major, junior Brittany Bruinsma said.
“The main objective of the alliance is to help students build networking skills and social networks so once they get outside of school, they have people they can connect with,” Bruinsma said. “It’s really hard to get your foot in the door with sports management, so the more people you know, the more effective it will be.”
Assistant Director of Student Life Carly Heard said creating student organizations that correlate to majors is a great way to meet people.
“It’s really beneficial to students because it helps them network with not only other students in the program, but with business professionals,” Heard said. “That way, when students graduate, they will hopefully have some connections for possible employment.”
Junior Jay Burns helped start the organization and said the group has 20 members already involved. Burns said students don’t need to be sports management majors to participate, but must be actively involved.
One of the missions of the group is to have a positive influence on campus, Bruinsma said.
“We decided that one way we could try and give back to the campus community was by donating 10 percent of our proceeds to USD’s Children’s Miracle Network,” Bruinsma said. “Hopefully, in the future we can do more activities like that where we can support other organizations as well.”
SMA’s big project for the year is a Spring Scramble Golf Tournament that will take place at Yankton’s Fox Run Golf Course. The fee to enter is $220 for a group of four people. After the tournament, SMA will be providing a meal for the golfers and there will also be prizes people can win, Bruinsma said.
“The biggest thing is getting the word out about our program,” Bruinsma said. “I hope it’s a big success and helps people in the future so that they have some networking skills they can fall back on when it comes to graduation.”
Reach reporter Cristina Drey at [email protected].
