Friday, April 25, 2014

New Places, New Faces

Can y’all believe it’s already the end of April? I’m still in a little bit of shock how quickly this year has gone by. My cohort and I have been to seven meetings through our fifth class, which means next week, I’ll only have 7 classes left before graduation (the program has 12 classes, I go to school once a week, one class is eight weeks long). CRAZY. I still can’t figure out how to slow down time.

So, after traveling to Arizona in the last post, I decided to go back and visit again during the last weekend in March. I know, I’ve already been told I’m crazy. But, I did make a resolution to take advantage of my opportunities and I need to live up to it, right? Not only this but it has taken me eight months to explore outside the city, just because I was always working on weekends. Just like the last trip, I met with people within MLB organizations to expand my network. I’ve learned that no matter where you’re going (or if you’re favorite team is coming to town) you should always reach out to see if someone is willing to talk. You never know how far that connection could take you.

Two weeks later, I joined a couple of the guys in my cohort for a weekend trip to Los Angeles. Nick Walsh, Adam Johansen, and Thomas Sweeney (all from cohort 39) and I went down there to see the New York Mets play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Nick is from New Jersey and is a diehard Mets fan while Adam is the Angels fan. I want to visit every ballpark in the country, so I wanted to cross the Angels stadium off of my list.

Myself, Nick, Sweeney, and Adam at Angels Stadium
For the record, I couldn't wear red and have it be mistaken for 'Angels red', so I decided to represent my favorite team, the Rangers (I am a Dallas girl). The only one who didn't represent a favorite team was Sweeney (he's a Brewers fan and told me how lame I was for wearing a Rangers jersey). The game went to 13 innings and the Mets came away with the win, so at least Nick was happy. Overall it was a fun weekend and I definitely need to go back to visit the Dodgers Stadium, as well as the Padres which is two hours south of LA! While we were there, we tried to hang out with Cohort 15S (the LA cohort that started in July with us), but we told them of our LA plans a little too late to where they were all busy. But hopefully next time!

With all the traveling that I've done over these last two months, it has really given me another perspective of the sport industry. I already knew there's a lot of opportunity within this field, but I think lately living in the Bay Area for the last 9 months has only had me thinking about this area since there are so many people and so many opportunities in sport. 

Each day, all of the USF Sport Management students are sent e-mails with job and internship opportunities within the Bay, LA area, and even beyond state borders. I've been told a few stories about how a few people from earlier cohorts accepted positions for the summer outside of California but still managed to stay on course with their schoolwork. This definitely got me thinking about having a potential summer stint somewhere other than the Bay Area. After talking with Stan Fasci, he reassured that it's definitely possible, especially if it's an opportunity in an industry that I'm passionate about and hope to end up in.

I don't think many graduate programs can say that. I've already said multiple times how great this USF program is, but I don't think others could compete in the fact of their students staying on top of their work with an internship outside of where ever their campus may be. This is just another cool perk that this program has along with everything else that it offers.

As I've learned and said before, it's all about networking and who you know. USF not only gives you a large network within being in the program, but it also gives you an opportunity to create an even larger one outside of the Bay and LA area.


4 comments:

  1. Next time you guys come down from up north, let us socal peoples know, we're always in for a good Angel game and meeting fellow students!

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  2. Hi! I am really stoked I stumbled across this because an instructor from SFSU told me to contact Stan Fasci. I'm currently getting my things together to apply for the USF Sports Management Program for January 2015. As nice it would have been to attend an informational meeting, this was nice to get a perspective from a student!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoy! Good luck with your application, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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