Meet NASSM Student Board
By Jess Brougham
2023-202 NASSM student board president
Hello! Thanks for stopping by. My name is Jess Brougham and I am the student board president for the 2023-2024 academic year. A little about me for those of you who I have not met… I am a current PhD candidate at the University of Florida, researching athlete well-being - a topic I became interested in as a college athlete at Washington State University. Fun fact, I was recruited from New Zealand.
To begin, I want to provide you all with an overview of what the student board achieved last semester. I will share information on what to look out for in the future!
In the Fall 2023 semester, the student board offered two student engagement opportunities: First, Spencer Cavan (University of Louisville) hosted Dr. Adam Cohen in November to discuss the international job market. This was a great session, with lots of great questions asked. If you missed this, and want to learn more, please keep an eye out for our upcoming student blog posts.
Second, Leila Riley from University of Minnesota organized a workshop initiative for Diversifying the Classroom through Learning Syllabus. However, we learned this semester that we need to curate our programming to your needs as students within the NASSM community. Therefore, we made the decision to shift this initiative online, and it can be found here.
Initially, these monthly initiatives were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and served as a way to bring people together. However, as the world has transitioned to life post-covid, the student board noticed that these monthly initiatives are not as easy for you all to attend. Therefore, we have been working together to find new and better ways to serve your needs.
As a student board, we are here to serve your wants and needs, yet we cannot do this alone. We need your feedback to ensure we create content and initiatives that are helpful and beneficial to YOU. So, please reach out to us with questions, ideas and comments for things that could help you thrive in the NASSM community. Even if you have a grievance, tell it to us! We can take that too. :-)
As we move forward into this second semester, there are a few initiatives that I recommend you stay on the lookout for.
Pre-conference networking night: We will be hosting a synchronous networking event for students to meet each other prior to the conference. We heard your feedback that it is hard to mix and mingle with others. We are hoping to break down some of these barriers pre-conference!
Student-Faculty Mentor Initiative: Keep an eye on your email to sign up for the student-faculty mentor initiative. The student-faculty mentor initiative is a way to connect you with a seasoned professional and widen your network. Those emails will begin rolling out in just a couple of months. We will provide you with information regarding your mentor prior to the conference so you can meet via zoom or make time to connect in Minneapolis.
Student Social/Luncheon: Work is underway to plan the student social and luncheon for the conference. Make sure to check the conference app when the time comes and plan to attend these events. They are a great way to meet other students and learn more about the student board.
Student Symposium: Hosted at the conference will be a student symposium - lead by Spencer Cavan. Support your peers by looking to attend these events. The 2024 NASSM student symposium promotes discourse around human rights in academia and provides tools for participants to integrate these paramount topics in their classroom(s). The proposed 60-minute symposium highlights tools, resources, and strategies to educate Sport Management students on the ongoing human rights issues, providing suggestions to combat them.
Finally, as we move through this semester we will begin elections for the NASSM student board for next year. If you have any questions or are interested in being involved, please reach out to me (or any other board member). We are happy to discuss and share where we see the future of the board going. Similarly, like I said earlier, we want to serve you. Please let us know if there are any events you would like to see us add to our schedule. And for those who feel as though you are unable to attend the synchronous zoom events, we hear you. We as a board are working to create engaging ways to keep you involved! If you have any ideas or recommendations on how to make your NASSM membership more beneficial to you as a student, the Student Board wants to hear from you.
Have a great semester.