One of the new learning communities launching at Old Dominion University this fall, Sport Management, is off to a great start. This LC is part of the Human Movement Sciences department in the Darden College of Education, and its students are incoming freshmen working toward B.S. degrees Physical Education with a concentration in Sport Management.

The 16 students who make up this learning community’s cohort take two of their required general education courses together, English Composition I (ENGL 110C) and Computer Literacy (STEM 251G), and faculty teaching both courses have adapted assignments to allow them to read, research, and write about potential careers in their major. In the first five weeks of this semester, these students already have gotten a behind-the-scenes tour of the Student Recreation Center, had a chance to talk about on-campus and community sport management resources with Recreation and Wellness Assistant Director for Sports Teams and Summer Camps Jean McLellan-Holt, and learned about event management and race directing from Jerry Frostick of J&A Racing during a classroom visit. They will have other guest speakers as the semester progresses, and in November, they will team up with members of the Exercise Science LC to volunteer at a half marathon that runs through the campus.

Mia Marcus,  a student in the class who is also the Class Council of 2019 President, said of her experience so far:

“One thing that I consider to be beneficial from being in the Sports Management Learning Community is that I get to have classmates that are in the same major as I am in. This is a great way for me to make long-lasting friends because we’ll be in classes together in the future. Another thing I consider to be beneficial is that I get to meet with professionals who hold a position that I want to be in one day. This helps me to get a head start on achieving my goals and also lets me know what I need to do in order to reach them.”