I bought my cap and gown today. In a little over a month it will be goodbye life I know (you know, the one where I'm always in school) and hello life that I'm scared of. Well, I don't want to start stressing over the future, so in this post, I want to talk about my experience as an undergrad.
When I started looking at colleges the summer between my junior and senior years in high school (to those that don't know, I went to Gloucester Catholic), the first campus I looked at was York College of PA. Everyone talks about how you don't find love at first sight, we'll they're wrong. This was love at first sight. Even though campus was closed due to the Fourth of July holiday, I knew that was where I belonged. It didn't matter what other campuses I looked at. No offense to the other campuses I looked at (including Lynchburg, Catawba, Pheiffer, Gardner-Webb, and High Point), made me feel like I was at home. It didn't matter that no one was there. The only thing I could do was picture my official visit to campus and what it would be like with people there.
Well, September rolls around and I go for my official visit. The admissions officer gave my parents and I a tour and asked what my major would be when standing behind the MACC building (or as it's known today Wolff Hall). I responded with Sports Management. He replied with well, all your classes will be on West Campus which is down this road. I never even saw what West Campus looked like. All I knew was that would be where most of my classes would be and YCP was building a new gym.
I finally made it through my Senior year and the summer of parties and saying goodbyes to my friends, who really became like sisters and brothers to me (and yes, I still feel the same way about you guys!). I moved out to York to live on campus and instantly became close friends with my roommate. While I can't say how others fared with their roommates, I missed mine when she decided to transfer after the first semester. I then moved in with other friends I had made throughout my first year and lived with them for the next two and a half years until I moved home my last semester to do an internship. The main thing I learned living with people was if you have issues with someone, talk to them and don't blame others. Also, living with five other females is a hard thing to do. I probably would never live with more than two females ever again in my life.
While I want to relive my undergrad days, its not the living and the friendships and all that fun stuff I want to reflect on. No, it's the classes and the professors I had who challenged me. Without them, I never would have made it to where I am today (although I am currently unemployed, without the work ethic that was instilled in me, I never would have been able to survive these last two years of grad school).
One thing students entering the sport management program at York is that they will be required to do practicum. There was four total, one each semester of your first two years. This is where I got the hands on experience. My first semester I was working in the old Wolff Gymnasium's fitness center. Unlike today, we just sat there and made sure students showed their IDs to get in. The cardio room was down the hall and no one was really there to make sure anyone was okay. Second semester, I got to work with different sports teams. Lax still played on the old soccer field near the Manors and the creek, so I got to chase balls and retrieve them from the water. Luckily, I only had to work one lax game. The rest of the time I was at swim meets making sure times were recorded, or working softball events. These were my favorite since I grew up playing softball and new the team since I tried out and didn't make it.
My last two practicums were in the Grumbacher Sport and Fitness Center, YCP's new gym. What a difference two...new state of the art pool, rock wall, basketball courts, field house, you name it, the new gym had it. Here I was able to work the different desks (main desk watching people swipe their IDs to get in, west desk greeting people as they came in for sporting events, and the equipment desk handing out equipment to be used and washing sports teams laundry). At the end of my practicum experience, I was hired to work their full time. My last practicum I was still able to work at the Grum and shadowed the building supervisors to see how the facility operated.
Let's start with first semester freshman year. This is when I took the basic core classes all freshman are required to take, along with the introductory sport management class. This is also where I first started hearing the stories from upper classmen about Dr. Newman. The one thing I thought was don't take a class with him unless you absolutely have too, and even then, wait until the last possible minute. The class I had was with Dr. Cindy Lee, who is now teaching at West Virginia University I believe. She made the class challenging, but what I learned was that in a class full of men (I was the only female) I had to hold my own ground and believe in myself. That class was where I gained most of my self confidence. Without Dr. Lee's class, I never would have been able to understand what I was getting myself into.
Second semester, I had History and Philosophy of Sport with Prof. Achtzehn. This wasn't the most exciting class I had at YCP, but it was one of the most fun. It gave me an insight of where sports came from. The one project I remember doing was a paper on an athlete. I remember Prof. Achtzehn gave us the topic and mine was Billie Jean King. I can't tell you what I got on the paper, but I know it helped me learned how she influenced not only tennis, but women's sports.
Sophomore year came around and I was stilling living on main campus, quite a walk from West Campus where I was spending all of my time now thanks in part to classes and practicum. This semester I took Sport in Society with Prof. Klinedinst (Dr. Klinedinst now as she received her doctorate in Spring 2008) and Sport Behavior with Dr. Grove. Sport in Society is pretty self explanatory but it was fun. There's pretty much one thing about every class that I remember. For this class, it was a presentation I did about sports in the media. My presentation included youtube videos of Terrell Owens. This was around the time his problems with the Philadelphia Eagles started and the local media interviewed him while he was doing situps in his driveway. Thank you T.O. for being a perfect example for me. Sport Behavior was interesting because it gave us the psychological view of how athletes operate so to say. While I loved Dr. Grove (especially her country line dancing class) this was probably my least favorite class because psychology wasn't a favorite topic of mine.
My fourth semester Sport Admin with Dr. Lee. I really don't remember much about this class, just that we had a group project and I found the class really frustrating.
I took Sport Marketing with Dr. Newman in the Fall of 2007. Here's where I thought all those previous stories I heard came true. Well, they did. But I don't regret it one bit. Dr. Newman is the toughest professor I ever had (including grad school). He demands the best efforts of his students and won't accept anything less. He prepares you for the real world, which at the time I could have cared less, but now I am forever grateful. In this class, we were put into groups and given mini assignments, such as increasing attendance at sporting events on campus, and a major project, coming up with a marketing plan for a real organization. And in each case, he gives only one A. The main lesson I learned here was from our first mini project. Even though my group had the best ideas, we weren't on the same page when checking over our work. We completely forgot to put one group member's name on it and decided to tape his name on. You better believe Dr. Newman called us out on it. This is where the start of real world experience came in. We had to sell tickets to a Hershey Bears game and work on putting together a golf tournament for the following semester.
Christmas break allowed me to recover from my first run with Dr. Newman and mentally prepare myself for Sport PR. This time around we were finishing up with last minute details for the golf tournament and working on our semester long project, putting on a press conference. While I am still morning the loss of my team, which Dr. Newman killed off during our crisis situations, we were able to learn with more real world experience. I think everyone's favorite part of the press conferences though is the food we get to eat afterward. The only down side is PR classes are in the morning.
I was also taking Facility and Event Management this semester with Massa. This was a fun class because we got to go to different facilities for a tour and write about what they were doing, both good and bad, and take pictures of unsafe areas. (Note to future students: everyone takes a picture of the sidewalks between Main and West campuses, after about the first 2 presenters, it gets old). Another real world experience we got to do was in procuring equipment. While we didn't actually have to buy it, we were able to go through and research, make suggestions, and pick out what we thought was best.
In the summer I took the 3 week mini-mester finance class with Dr. Newman. If you want to pass, this is probably your best bet. It won't be easy though. You're cramming an entire semester into three weeks. Expect to work your butt off and not be satisified with the results of the daily quiz. No matter how much you study, it won't help. I don't want to discourage you, but it's reality.
I'm now entering my last semester on campus. At this point I was finally able to take another class with Prof. Massa, this time was Sport Law. If you ever want to just sit down and talk to someone in the sport industry, Massa is the guy to go to. Every class he started with a different story. This was class was fun because we got to see the legal side of it. Without this class, I probably wouldn't understand what is going on with the NFL labor agreement. This class wasn't always the most enjoyable, but Massa did his best.
My very last semester was my internship and ethics class. Internships you can have any of the professors as your advisor. Just because you sign up for one, doesn't mean you'll get that one though. I think they base it off who's in certain regions. But ethics, you get to have Dr. Newman. Just because this class is only, doesn't mean you can take it lightly. I thought Dr. Newman was tougher in this class than the previous classes I had with him.
While I haven't been backt been back to campus since I graduated in 2009, I hear YCP is expanding. I know the Sport Management department has lost some faculty and gained new members. While I can't talk about the new faculty, I will bet my life that they are the best at what they are doing. I will never regret the hard work demanded of me from my professors. They want you to succeed, not only in the classroom but in the real world as well.
While I don't want to ruin Dr. Newman's reputation, get to know him outside of the classroom and start talking to him as a freshman. And make sure to participate as much as you can in his classes. I actually regret not taking one of his classes sooner (at the time he was also teaching Sport Admin). I loved the professors I had at YCP, not just the ones I mentioned for SPM, but all the ones I had. They are all available for you whenever you need to talk to someone. My advisor was Dr. Grove, but I knew that if I needed something I could go to any of the professors in the department.
I didn't know what to expect going into this as a freshman, but two years after leaving, I wish I could go back. The sports industry is always on the move. I only wish I could be in McKay Hall Second Floor now with the faculty and students discussing what is going on with the NFL. I also want to thank all the professors for the sincere efforts in pushing me to the limits, not only educationally, but mentally as well (and by this I mean crisis situations at 3 am, marketing plans, press conferences, EPAs, and everything else I wish I could forget but can't!). Without you, I never would be where I am today, both professionally (and by that I mean I know I'm prepared once I graduated next month) and personally (knowing that I have the confidence to do what I can do). Also, thank you for being a friend when I needed one.
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