Internships
Professor Betsy Goff serves as the Director of Internships and is responsible for advising and placing students in sport management internship positions in the following sport industries:
- college athletic departments
- professional teams
- facilities and arenas
- collegiate associations and conferences
- sport marketing and promotion agencies
- sport federations
- various miscellaneous sport programs and organizations.
The internship is an on-the-job learning experience with a sport organization and is arranged for course credit. The six-credit course number is SPORTMGT 650. The internship is scheduled for a minimum of 13 weeks with at least 40 hours of work per week. However, many internships are arranged for a longer period by mutual agreement of the student and sponsor. Arrangements are finalized through an internship contract signed by the student, the sponsor, and the Department Head of the Department of Sport Management.
Will Shapiro, MS/MBA 07 -- Interns at Octagon
MBA/MS Sport Management dual-degree candidate (2007) Will Shapiro‘s recently completed internship with sports and entertainment marketing leader Octagon, afforded him with excellent opportunities to learn from top industry professionals and showcase his talents.
Working with a five-person Octagon account team, Shapiro assisted in all phases of platform creation for a major financial firm client. The experience included everything from concept brainstorming and program development to event activations and wrap-up duties. Often times these duties included helping manage first-hand client efforts in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C.
“I feel very fortunate to get a position at a place like Octagon,” say Shapiro. “Not only were the directors and managers of my group exceptionally talented marketers, but I felt like they viewed me as an asset with valuable input. From the interns all the way up to senior management, I was exposed to a lot of creative people with varying knowledge bases, all of whom were willing to share and help me learn.”
Shapiro’s experience prior to coming to UMass included public relations roles in the athletic departments of Duke and Boston College. His marketing and sport business studies are now more focused on the agency side of the business.
“This summer confirmed for me that this is the field I want to pursue,” comments Shapiro. “The experience I got at Octagon was invaluable. I met people, learned about working with properties and clients, and about executing experiences. It was great to pull things from the classroom and put them into practice. “