Last month, Rice professor Tom Stallings, the Director of Student Career Development for the Department of Sport Management, attended the National Sports Forum. Held in a different location each year, Cincinnati was the location of choice for the twentieth anniversary of the forum that took place over three days, February 8th to February 10th.
The forum, which usually consists of mostly best practices lectures is a one of a kind opportunity for Stallings to interact with professionals that not only help improve the classroom experience here at Rice, but are also valuable connections that directly benefit students from the sport management department. Over the past three years that Stallings has attended the forum, there have been direct ties with the forum and job opportunities for students.
“I have been able to arrange interviews for internships and full-time jobs because of the forum,” said Stallings. “One of our recent grads now has a full-time job interview because of the forum.”
The fact that the forum brings together so many professionals from around the entire U.S. is something that has a large appeal to Stallings and the Department of Sport Management. Over the past few years the department has noticed that more and more Sport Management majors are from outside of Texas. Attending the forum is an efficient way to expand the department’s scope of contacts and therefore try and provide out of state students with more opportunities in their home states/towns.
“This year over the Christmas break, we had two freshman work at the Orange Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Bowl,” said Stallings. “The forum aligns with our philosophy of actively seeking out opportunities for our students.”
Stallings has already signed up for the 2016 forum, scheduled to take place in Portland, Oregon, on February 14th to February 16th in order to keep expanding the connections of Rice’s Department of Sport Management.
Natalie Beazant, a senior from England, is majoring in Sport Management.