The Sports Mangement and Entertainment Marketing class in Canastota will have a unique opportunity to earn microcredentials and shadowing experiences through a new partnership with the Syracuse Crunch Hockey Club.
Sports Management is a new two-year course offered at Canastota through a collaboration with Madison-Oneida BOCES. Taught by Business Department teacher Jake Smith, it launched in September and is open to juniors and seniors.
Throughout the current hockey season, students in the class will develop a thorough understanding of how the Syracuse Crunch Hockey Club operates through classroom appearances from front office staff, an arena tour, and game attendance. These lessons and experiences will culminate with a job shadowing opportunity in March or April.
Students will earn Digital Badges as they attend lessons in Operations, Sports Management, Professional Image, and Interviewing. They will have opportunities to shadow in areas such as Community Relations, Broadcasting, Sales, Public Relations and Social Media, Merchandise, and Game Operations. Students will be assigned to one department and will complete a semester-long project that will be implemented during their shadowing experience. Syracuse Crunch personnel will work closely with the students as they plan and implement their projects.
Digital Badges earned throughout the program will be showcased in a program-specific employability profile and displayed on e-portfolios that the students will create.
To help kick off the partnership, students and their families were invited to attend a Crunch game on January 16, where they were introduced to key management personnel with the Syracuse Crunch. Representatives of the hockey team also visited the high school class on January 18 to speak more about the experience.
Students who are interested in this sports-related badging experience but are not enrolled in the Sports Management course can talk with Mr. Smith or educational consultant Otis Jennings about options available to them.