Online students comps and internship application

***** A-State switched to CANVAS Summer II, 2023 This post is for when we used blackboard. *****

    This video shows A-State MS Sport Administration Online students how to navigate the MS Sport Administration Online Organization shell on blackboard so they can turn in their comprehensive exam application as well as their internship application when they are eligible.  The shell also has important program information, so the more familiar you are with it the better! Contact the program/internship coordinator, Dr. LaVetter (lavetter@astate.edu) if you have questions. 

    Note that this process is not the same for BS Sport Management students or for MS Sport Administration students on campus, who have to contact Dr. Wheeler-Gryffin (awheeler@astate.edu) and visit the HPESS website for their internship information and Dr. Brian Church (bchurch@astate.edu) to register for comps. 

Check out these sample answers with feedback and por tips to help you formulate possible answers to some of your comps questions. These are intended as examples only, do not copy these answers word by word because you will be flagged for plagiarism. They should be used as inspiration and to help guide you in creating original answers =D

This is a good example, and the student followed directions in bolding the concepts. However, this student failed to define each concept, so they lost significant points for that. Pro tip: Do not forget to include your concepts definitions. 

In the early 2000s, the two most popular female tennis players in the world were Serena Williams & Anna Kournakova. The way that they were covered was fairly equal but their play on the tennis court was not equal. Serena Williams dominated the Womens Tennis circuit while Anna Kournakova was just covered just as much because of her looks. This is an example of Objectifying Women in Sports by The Media that is more laughable & evident today because Serena Williams is still dominating but Anna Kournakova is nowhere to be found in professional tennis. Male athletes are pretty much judged for their play on the field/court but women continue to fight an uphill battle throughout their whole career because they do not receive Equal Pay for their accomplishments on the field (Ex. USWNST vs. USMST). Serena Williams has been one of the most dominant athletes of all time but every time she is brought up in the media it has to do with her being the most dominant "Female" athlete of all time. It is time that we are able to see past Culture and Gender in the world of sport & respect the dominance of all athletes, regardless of gender and Sexuality. Serena has also been at the forefront of Athlete Activism during the Summer of 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer. Athlete's voices, right or wrong, carry a lot of weight & it is awesome when they put their voice behind a cause that they think is worthwhile. Using Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) to send out these messages to their millions of followers is something that Serena does not shy away from & I admire her for it. I may not have all the same Activism ideas that she has but that does not take away the respect I have for her for using her platform as a means to create the change she would like to see in the world. Serena Williams has worked tirelessly to get in the position she is in today by perfecting her craft as a tennis player. She is now using that position to help create a better society by engaging in Public Sociology & is effectively communicating that she is not just another female tennis player that was given screen time based on how she looks. She is a African American Women role model who has dominated a sport that has long been played by people that do not look like her & our society is a better place because of her. 

The following students' work lost points because they did not understand the task. The instructions were to take a concept from sports in society and a concept from sport communication and unite them in one example (then do that again in a second example). This question was designed to do two things: 1) show mastery of advanced principles of sport management, and 2) show understanding of how content from multiple courses overlaps in realistic situations. In failing to do that, this answer will not receive a passing grade. Pro tip: Read the instructions thoroughly and make sure you understand what is being asked, and in this case, provide two integrative examples. 

My example that I am using is a semi fictitious example. The organization I am focusing on is the West Park High School Football Team (WPFT). West Park high school is a brand new school that just opened during the 20/21 school year. This is there inaugural year and they had to open during covid as well. Because of opening during covid, there was not a football season in the fall as all sports were canceled in California at the beginning of the year for covid. Well now covid numbers are declining, so the state said the sports can resume, so all sports will have short modified season where they will all compete during the spring. Some more background about the school, the school is a very unique build and is innovative technologically and is a student centered school. The football stadium is a unique stadium that is sunk into the ground and there is no track around the school so there is a unique viewing experience compared to other schools in California. My first concept from Sport in Society is about women in sports. In class we had read an article written by Jorgenson or Jameson. In that article one statistic stood out to me at that was that of all female sport college coaches, approximately 50% of the coaches were male. Compared to all mens sport coaches, only 3% were female. In the four main professional sports, there are very few female coaches, with the coaches that are female making national news because it is so rare. I thought that one way in my example that the WPFT could address this issue would be to have an assistant female or even a head female football coach. I think this would be good for the players as it would make them get used to seeing female in sports and having to listen to female coaches in stead of just male coaches. The players would then grow up with female in power positions and it would not seem like a rare thing for them. Another positive for have a female head coach would be for the female students and showing them that someone like them can succeed in a male dominated sport. This would also build on the fact that the school principal is also female and the would have many female in power positions to lead by example. My Second concept from Sport in Society is race in sports. I was recently at a meeting at West Park High School because I am hoping to become a teacher at the school. In that meeting it was said that the student population was diverse and that 51% of the student population was not white. I thought about this and tried to relate it to the class and this example. The head football coach is a person of color and again this is good for the athletes as they see someone like them as the head coach. I think the football team should also hire more persons of color to meet the same ratio of the student population. I also think the staffing for the school in general should represent the same proportion of the student population. Athletes and students may be more inclined to listen and perform for a teacher or coach that looks like them. They can feel like they relate to coaches and teachers of color, which in turn can help better there athletic and educational career. My first concept for Sport Communication is using social media to communicate. While this is WPHS inaugural year, the school has been in the planning stages for ten years and been under construction for four years. The principal and other key administration was hired two years before the school opened. One of the first things the principal did was to start social media accounts for the school to help promote the school and to build awareness for the school. I think the WPFT can build on social media presence that has already been created to help promote the brand for the football team. Most people expect football games to be played in the fall like a normal season, but because of covid, the season is going to be played in the spring. The WPFT can use their social media accounts to communicate to the community about when games are going to be, cost, etc. Since this is the first year for the high school, they only opened with freshman and sophomores. Because of this, there are only a junior varsity and freshman football team. The sophomores will be the first graduation class of the school. I think the WPFT could use their social media accounts to do get to know the players posts to help build the relationship and communication between potential fans and the football program. Another way they can use social media to communicate to the community is to show a video of the unique stadium and the type of viewing experience a person would get watching a game in person. My second concept for Sport Communication is to provide a live streaming service and to use multiple camera angles. Because school is built to be innovative technologically, they can use this technology to set up a live streaming service for the community to be able to view the games from the home. This would provide an option to community members who may not feel safe going to a public gathering. They can use this shortened spring season to show the viewers what the experience would be like to view a game for the stadium. They could set up multiple camera angles to help keep the interest of the viewers. One wide view when the play happens, but also a close up view for replays. One of the articles we read discussed that viewers attention were kept when there were more cuts in the broadcast. If the live streaming service could have a wide view, close up view, and then also a view from the field, they would be able to have multiple cuts to break up the broadcast, keeping the attention of viewer. 

In this example the student was not thorough enough and it was not clear how each of the concepts they chose to use applied to the content areas assigned (sports in society and sport comm). Pro tip: Thoroughly define each concept, describe how it applies in the example in ample detail, and explicitly state how each concept relates to the content area in question. 

The concepts I will use in this example include emotional reaction, tweet, race in sport, and nationalism in sport. Emotional reaction is a reaction that someone has while viewing a form of sport communication. A tweet is a post on the social media platform Twitter. Race in sport refers to the diversity of races in sport. Nationalism in sport refers to the nations that participate in sport. The month of February is black history month, so the USA olympics Twitter page decides to tweet an image of the first black athlete to win a gold medal for team USA in the olympics. This tweet will be using all of the concepts previously discussed. The tweet will create an emotion reaction within the Twitter pages followers and also anyone who sees the tweet that gets shared will also have an emotional reaction to the tweet. Viewers of the tweet will be proud of the athlete for having been the first black athlete to earn a gold medal for team USA in the olympics, this. The tweet on Twitter will promote black athletes and also promote the USA olympics team. The tweet is showcasing race in sport. The tweet with give viewers of the tweet the emotion of being proud to be Americans. The tweet will show the athlete competing against other athletes from other countries, so nationalism in sport will also be present in the tweet.