By Tony von Richter, The Brunswickan

(As originally published in the November 26, 2008 issue of The Brunswickan. Available at http://thebruns.ca/content/2008-11/outside-class)

For most students, a mid-semester trip to Toronto to watch hockey and football would be a nice break and good way to get away from everything. For the students in the Kinesiology faculty’s Sport and Recreation Management seminar, their trip was more like one extended class than a vacation.

Over six non-stop days, the class met with executives from organizations ranging from the Canadian Olympic Committee and NASCAR Canada, to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to the Toronto Argonauts.

Student Chris Mustakas said that the trip was greatly beneficial to those in the class.

“First and foremost we got contacts of executives working in our proposed field. It also got our names in their minds and now we’ve put the University of New Brunswick on the radar of professional and amateur sports. We put our names out there and they understand where we’re coming from and now we have an understanding of where they’re coming from as well.”

“We saw what’s available in our field,” said Christine Hartnoll. “I wasn’t really aware of exactly what certain jobs actually entailed, I had no idea what I could into after [school].”

Ian Reid, the professor in charge of the course, says that the trip was modeled after a similar trip to New York that the University of Oregon’s MBA in Sport Marketing program has been offering to their senior students.

This was the first time the course and trip were offered at UNB and it is designed to benefit both the students and the university.

First, said Reid, it allowed students “to personally interact with the leaders in Canadian sport and recreation. Second, to develop a personal network of these leaders who the students could access for course work, internships, and future employment. Third, to develop an internal view of the management of private and public sport and recreation organizations that is not available in textbooks or journals.”

The purpose of the trip for UNB and the MBA in Sport and Recreation Management program were somewhat different than the students.

The purposes of the program are to “first create brand awareness and equity. Second to create a team of professional leaders in sport and recreation who are aware of our MBA in Sport and Recreation Management program, and to involve these people in the program through quest lectures, internships and possible course offerings,” said Reid.

Although it is the focus of the course, the trip itself is not the only component. Prior to leaving for Toronto, the class divided the companies amongst themselves to provide background info to the rest of the group and to make contact with the executives and form relationships before the meetings.

The group also put together an information package for the different organizations complete with resumes, contact numbers, and information about the program itself.

The students said that the despite the fast-paced nature of the trip, it was definitely a worthwhile experience that other programs should think about implementing.

“You learn stuff that you just can’t learn in the classroom. I knew that going in but it’s true,” said Brad Duquette.

“We had really busy days but the information that you’re getting is not necessarily about the type of work, or about the organization but it’s about the process that they took to get there. The life lessons.”