UNPARALLELED PIPELINES, UNPARALLELED PREP

It arrives in student inboxes every Monday around 10 a.m., 52 weeks a year. Brimming with internship opportunities, job posts, career advice, club meeting schedules and more, Isenberg School of Management Senior Lecturer Emily Must’s sport management newsletter is a must-read for students looking to advance their careers in the industry.

But the newsletter is only a fraction of what Must offers in her dual role at the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management. As the department’s director of internships, she spearheads a robust program that’s about more than setting up students with hands-on learning opportunities—it also focuses on providing resources to help students strengthen their resumes, job applications, and professional skills.

“Internships really help students understand what they’re good at, and what they like to do,” Must said. “Our sport management majors choose their industry first, and they may not know if they want to be a marketer, accountant, or coach. I really preach that they need to sample different types of roles because that’s where you figure out what you like and what you don’t like.”

Making Changes

program then was much different, according to McCormack Department Chair and Professor Steve McKelvey.

“It was less of a focus on full-time jobs, less of a focus on preparing the students’ resumes and cover letters as well as interview and networking skills, and less of a focus on building pipelines into the industry,” McKelvey said. “It was primarily about getting students summer internships and doing the paperwork for them to earn course credits.”

One of the very first issues Must saw when she took over was that some sport management double majors were participating in internships without receiving college credit. She said she worked to change this so they could gain credit toward their graduation.

“Since then, the number of students who are not only in internships but are actually earning credit for their work has more than tripled,” Must said. “Now, sport management has more students on a credited internship than the rest of Isenberg combined.”

Credited internships are important, Must said, because they require students to do some reflection and complete professional development assignments. In addition, Must can more easily monitor student progress by checking in with their supervisors, which only leads to better opportunities for feedback.

Must has focused on building new partnerships, including with UMass Amherst’s very own athletics department, to expand the opportunities sport management students have for first internships or jobs.

Must began teaching at McCormack in the fall of 2016 and assumed the department’s director of internships role two years later. Although there was an internship program long before Must joined the faculty, the Buffy Filippell, Teamwork Consulting Founder, Zooms into Professor Must’s sales class.

“We’re an NCAA, Division I university, but we also have a pretty small budget, so that gives us a unique opportunity to have a lot of the athletic department staffed by students,” Must said. “We’ve gone from 20 interns at UMass Athletics to close to 100 now. Those first experiences really open the door to those higherlevel summer internships.”

McKelvey also said that sports organizations are much more proactive now than they were in the past, as they come to campus more often to reach out to potential interns and employees.

“We’re always looking to build sustainable pipelines into a wide range of sports organizations, whether they’re seeking students for full-time jobs or internships, and Professor Must has a proven ability and passion for opening doors and cultivating these pipelines,” he said.

Expanding Online Resources

Another part of the internship program Must sought to improve was the way opportunities and resources were organized for students. She introduced her students to TeamWork Online, an online job board for the sports business field, so they can learn how to identify jobs and build a professional profile.

“I even have a fake job on TeamWork Online, so students can apply there, and I can do a profile review for them,” Must said. “I show them how their profile is showing up and give them tips and tricks on how to make it better.”

First-year students in some of Must’s classes are also signing up for TeamWork Online. She said one of their assignments is to build a profile, complete a strengths assessment, find three internships they’re interested in, and create a plan to achieve their goals.

“We set strength-based weekly goals so they can break down these larger objectives of getting the coveted NFL summer internship, or whatever it is they want to do,” she said. “It’s about putting the pieces in place to reach those goals.”

Must also started using a service called iConnect, which is a central online hub for the newsletter and for resources that students can access.

McKelvey, who previously worked as the graduate program director for the McCormack Department for 13 years, says that during that time, he saw resumes from applicants across the country that were poorly written and unprofessional. Now that Must has taken over the internship program and set a focus on building these professional skills in collaboration with Isenberg’s Chase Career Center, McKelvey said he has immense confidence that McCormack students going out into the industry—whether for a summer internship or that all-important first job—are among the best positioned and prepared.

“I would stack up our career preparation and internship program against any business program in the country,” McKelvey said.

A sampling of organizations where McCormack students have secured internships since 2020:

• Monumental Sports and Entertainment

• Kraft Sports and Entrainment

• American Junior Golf Association

• The PGA

• OVG360

• Draft Kings

• Fenway Sport Management

• UMass Athletics

• The 33rd Team

• Wasserman Media Group

• Horizon Sport Management

• Navigate Sport Research

• MarketCast

• Hartford Yard Goats

• XL Center / Hartford Wolf Pack

• Spartan Races

• OOFOS

• Under Armour

• Fox Sports

Student Successes

Sophomore sport management major Christian Staco aspires to one day work for the NBA or one of its 30 teams. While he isn’t sure yet exactly what role he’d want, he knows he needs to gain experience and grow his professional network to set himself up for success.

That’s why Staco, who transferred to UMass from Emmanuel College, took advantage of the sport management internship program soon after arriving in Amherst.

Now, Staco is beginning his journey toward a career in sports as a media intern for the university’s track teams. “After one of Professor Must’s office hours we were talking about internships, and she was telling me about some of the sports teams here,” Staco said. “I wanted to be the intern for the basketball team, but that was already taken. Professor Must figured out that I had a background in track, and she told me about their open internship. I decided to apply to that, and thankfully, I got it.”

Working for both the men’s and women’s teams, Staco films practices and races and gives the tape to the coaches so they can help runners improve. For the men’s team, he’s working on gathering alumni contact information so the team can host an end-of-year party with current and past athletes.

“The sports industry is very small. If you’re working in a low-division league, they might know someone who works for something bigger,” he said. “If you make a good impression, they’ll remember that face, they’ll remember that name, and they might help you get a job in the future.”

Staco believes internships are important because they open pathways for making connections with professionals in the sports business field. He said he is thankful for Must’s guidance and the opportunities provided through the internship program.

“I’m enjoying it so far,” Staco said about his internship. “It’s been a really good experience.”