Articles tagged with: Placement

  • Hazel Campbell: Winter 2021 Forum & Webinar Coordinator

    Wednesday, February 03, 2021 | By

     Hazel Campbell is a fourth-year Sport Management student at Brock University. She is completing a placement with the Centre for Sport Capacity this Winter as our Forum & Webinar Coordinator.

    Are you worried about graduating from university without gaining practical experience in your field? With my graduation date rapidly approaching, I was constantly worried that I would enter the workforce without the experience employers want. When I discovered the position of CSC Forum & Webinar Coordinator, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to gain experience in a professional setting.

    During my time at Brock, I learned a great deal about internship opportunities, but not about other experiential education options. I was thrilled to learn from Dr. Julie Stevens, CSC Director, about the possibility of doing a placement for course credit. Through this option, I will do a hands-on placement at the CSC, while also completing course assignments under the supervision of Dr. Stevens, Director, and Cole McClean, Coordinator. This is a unique, self-directed program where I help design the course structure and content, as well as my projects and tasks.

    Unlike the two-credit internship course, the independent study placement is only half a credit, meaning it requires fewer hours while still providing invaluable experience. This is an exciting option for students interested in taking additional credits simultaneously, or those with other commitments, such as work. I am glad I learned about these sorts of experiential education courses before my degree ended and I recommend students explore this option.

    As Forum & Webinar Coordinator, I will gain practical experience in event management, marketing, and communications. Through this position, I will improve my transferrable skills such as time management, organization, teamwork, and leadership. I think most students would be able to find skills that they could improve on through this placement since the responsibilities are so vast. Improving these skills will ensure success, regardless of what career path someone chooses to take.

    I am thrilled to put my Sport Management knowledge into action in a workplace setting and be part of the team that will create an exciting and engaging 2021 Safe Sport Forum.

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    Categories: Blog, Students

  • Matthew Kapogines: Fall 2020 Webinar Coordinator

    Friday, January 15, 2021 | By

    Matthew Kapogines is a Sport Management student at Brock University, who, after working with the CSC as an Assistant Coordinator, returned to work as our Webinar Coordinator for the Fall 2020 semester. Read on to hear Matt’s thoughts after completing his placement with the Centre for Sport Capacity. 

    Do you want to develop your skill set and leadership abilities, while working towards a meaningful goal? I did, and that is why I decided to inquire about a position with the Centre for Sport Capacity (CSC). Through this experience I learned about the CSC’s mission and goals. I learned that the Centre is a hub for sport management research, and for communicating important information to Local, Provincial and even National Sport Organizations across the country. The Centre has aspirations to expand the scope of their communications about new sport related information globally, with the hopes that the findings they share will positively impact the sport sector world-wide.

    In the fall of 2020, I secured my position as a Webinar Coordinator to develop a sport communications platform. The purpose of this platform was to encourage various local sport organizations, from all different sports sectors, to share information about themselves and increase their visibility via webinars. In my placement as Webinar Coordinator, I developed new skills and enhanced all existing skills like leadership, problem solving, communications and time management, which are all important in every workplace. I learned that communications within a team is crucial to the success of one’s event or project, and more about online communication strategies. This placement allowed me to grow my skills and become a more productive, resourceful and helpful team player.

    During my placement, some responsibilities included  creating PowerPoint templates that reflected the Centre’s image, setting up and developing an email platform to help communicate webinars, as well as planning and helping deliver four webinars alongside CSC or community members, and other partners (See Past Webinars). I had to ensure final webinar materials coincided with the Centre’s image. Time management, focus, and organizational skills were essential during this placement because of the number of different webinars that needed simultaneous attention. In addition to strengthening my current skills and learning about webinar creation, I also contributed to the Centre’s visibility by playing a major role in the setting-up of their new campaign moderator platform along with communication materials that will assist future CSC webinar coordinators in their placements. I even had the opportunity to moderate a webinar and ask questions that were submitted by the audience to the presenter. At first I was very anxious and nervous, but by the end of the first webinar I realized it was not too bad and I was much more confident in my abilities. Overall, I am proud of both my contributions to CSC and of my new gained confidence.

    My advice to future students who are working with the CSC, is to check your email multiple times per day to ensure you do not miss anything important that needs to be done immediately because there are a lot of unexpected and time sensitive tasks that pop up. Also, do not be afraid to ask questions because that is how missteps are avoided. Asking questions is also an important part of building knowledge. Both the CSC faculty and staff were very helpful and supportive during my placement. I would therefore strongly recommend that the new incumbent take full advantage of their insights and knowledge. I think the CSC’s visibility will grow over the coming years and they will become a major player and contributor in the sport sector as they are identifying and facilitating the hard conversations that can get overlooked. Facilitating these conversations as well as working with sport organizations and governments to ensure tools exist to address inequities can help make both sport and workplaces more inclusive and healthier environments.

    The Centre for Sport Capacity has given me an awareness of the issues in sport and has prepared me to be a force of good. Being a part of the Centre and creating informational webinars for sport organizations has made me more aware and sensitive to the issues around equality and the strategies that need to be developed to address them. My newly gained knowledge in this sector coupled with my existing knowledge in sport have empowered me to help organizations with reducing stereotyping, and champion for the return of ‘fun’ in sport that is ‘inclusive’ for all. My time with the CSC has helped build my sport philosophy in a more inclusive way that I will be carrying into my professional life.

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    Categories: Blog, Students

  • Emma Fedorchuk: Starting a Role With the CSC

    Tuesday, November 17, 2020 | By

    Emma Fedorchuk is a fourth-year Media and Communication Studies student at Brock University. She is interning with the Centre for Sport Capacity this Fall and Winter as our Marketing and Communications Assistant.

    Hello, my name is Emma Fedorchuk! I was recently brought on board with the Centre for Sport Capacity as a Marketing and Communications Intern and will be working with the Centre until April. I am currently in my last year at Brock as I work to complete my degree in Media and Communication Studies and am really trying to get the most I possibly can out of my final year. I am currently enrolled in a course titled “Internship in Communication, Popular Culture, or Film” (COMM 4F00), which allowed me to get involved in a part-time placement related to my field of study. The class gave us a list of placement opportunities and the CSC as well as the Brock-Canada Games positions immediately caught my eye. My interest and love for sport, paired with the tasks that both placements planned to assign to interns (social media upkeep, website management, marketing, event support, etc.) made me extremely excited for both roles. I worked on my resume and cover letters with Anneka Bosse, the coordinator for the course, and after multiple weeks of implementing various changes, I finally sent them off. After conducting the interviews, I realized that the Centre for Sport Capacity internship would probably be a better fit for my skill set, and happily, I was offered the position and eagerly accepted.

    Although I am now a retired athlete, sport still holds an irreplaceable space in my heart and I am forever indebted to the lessons that these games have taught me. Whether it was hockey, soccer, rowing, or badminton, I was always excited to pack up my bags and head off to a practice, a game, a race, or a match, not only because that meant I got to play the sport I loved, but because I got to be a part of the various communities that surround these games. In the past, I have worked and volunteered in various sport-related positions, whether that be reffing 5-year-olds on the soccer field or coaching young girls in development hockey camps, so I was very excited to get involved with the CSC to further my sports involvement, and to put the skills that I have accumulated through my schooling to the test in a workplace setting.

    I am lucky enough to have also secured a position with the Niagara River Lions as a Journalism Intern, which will provide me with even more insight about working in the world of sport. In this position, I am responsible for interviewing coaches, players, partners, etc., and developing, writing, and editing articles for the team website. Already this position has exposed me to the inner workings of a sport organization and continues to demonstrate how sport isn’t just about what happens out on the court/field/ice/water etc., rather, it is overwhelmingly about bringing communities together and giving them something to cheer about.

    There are many reasons why working with the CSC peaked my interest: their impressive list of research projects, the fantastic forums and webinars that they host, and their focus on knowledge mobilization, just to name a few. But I was especially excited about the fact that the CSC is still a relatively new organization who have only just begun to establish their brand. Joining the team at such an early stage, and being able to bring the ideas I have to the open ears and minds of the CSC team, has already energized me and motivated me to want to work diligently within the organization. In turn, I am very eager to help come up with new ideas that will showcase all of the amazing things that the Centre has to offer.

    I believe that the contemporary perspective I have surrounding social media and marketing will be helpful to the Centre, and will aid in making the content that the CSC produces more accessible for a larger audience to consume, participate in, and enjoy. As a member of Generation Z, it is no surprise that social media is a part of my day-to-day life, as my daily usage report on my phone will attest to. In my days of scrolling through the multitude of platforms that the individuals in Silicon Valley have so carefully crafted to keep my attention, I have been exposed to not only the various emerging trends that seem to pop up on a daily basis, but also to the dos and don’ts of implementing and maintaining a brand image that will be effective in engaging a specific audience. I think that I’ll be able to provide the CSC with a fresh set of eyes when it comes to getting our message out to our community.

    During my time with the Centre, I hope to learn more about the inner workings of the CSC organizational culture and build professional relationships with various members of the Centre. I am excited to marry the theoretical that I have learned in an educational setting, to the practical that is hands-on work experience itself. I am confident that this work experience will be extremely helpful to the improvement of my hard and soft skills, and will help me expand my knowledge of the unlimited potential that working in sport has to offer. I am extremely excited to have been brought on board and can’t wait to get the ball rolling with some fantastic content!

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    Categories: Blog, Students

  • Noah Nickel: My Time with the CSC

    Wednesday, August 26, 2020 | By

    Noah Nickel is a fourth year Political Science student at Brock University with a Minor in Canadian Studies. He worked with the Centre for Sport Capacity this summer as our Communications and Marketing Assistant for his co-op work term.

    What an…interesting summer this has been (to say the least).

    As a full time student during the fall and winter, I’ve grown accustomed to seasonal full time employment in the spring and summer. But nothing could have prepared me for what this year had in store. However, despite the fact that the pandemic made the job search this summer so much harder for all of us students, to have been able to find an opportunity as personally fulfilling and enriching as I did is truly a blessing.

    Working as the Communications and Marketing Assistant for the Centre for Sport Capacity this summer was a unique experience for me in a variety of ways. For starters, anyone that knows me knows that sports aren’t my forte. Additionally, as a Political Science major, working for a Sport Management research centre wasn’t something I ever expected I would do. But in the end, it turned out to be a better fit than I could have imagined.

    The work that I was able to do with the CSC this summer was all work I have had previous experience in, albeit in a slightly different form. 

    Having worked for some larger research centres and other organizations in the past, the work I did was more laid out for me and procedural; Based on best practices that they had established over several years. Given that the CSC is a newer research centre, I was tasked in part with developing some of these practices and doing some of this foundational work for the first time alongside my bosses, Centre Director Dr. Julie Stevens and Centre Coordinator Cole McClean. 

    This degree of freedom and responsibility entrusted in me has been really empowering, as I feel that the work that I did will have an impact on the course and direction of the CSC going into the future, well beyond the length of my four month contract. 

    One such project was the creation of the Centre’s website. Having been a page on the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences website since their launch, things had been in motion by the time I started with the CSC to create their own fully fledged website with the help of Marketing and Communications. 

    My job was to compile all of the content that was to be included on the website and lay out how we would want it to be displayed on the site. I then sent it to Marketing and Communications to build it out in WordPress. Following a series of revisions with Marketing and Communications, as well as taking on some of that work in WordPress myself, we officially launched the website on August 6th. 

    I am incredibly proud of the work I did to create this website. I’m also impressed by the large-scale collaboration that took place between myself, Dr. Stevens, McClean, and the Marketing and Communications team. We were able to work so effectively together that we saw this project virtually from start to finish over the course of just two months.

    I also did some work more closely involved with Dr. Stevens’ research project, the Niagara Sport Database (NSD). I was able to design for her a logo for the project, as well as a variety of other assets to use on projects, reports, letterheads, and elsewhere. 

    I also designed the NSD project template that will be used on an ongoing basis for their economic impact reports that Dr. Stevens will be creating for sport organizations and clubs. These projects demonstrate the positive economic impact that sport clubs have on the regional economy here in Niagara. Having played a role in supporting that endeavour is something I am quite proud of.

    Lastly, I was also put in charge of developing the CSC’s social media presence. During my time with the CSC, we have created a Twitter account, developed a social media strategy to be used for the next 12 months, and began using social media management website HootSuite to effectively schedule posts across their social media platforms and to track analytics to improve their posting and content development strategy on an ongoing basis. While this work is truly in its infancy in terms of its implementation, I do believe that I have laid out an effective roadmap for the future success of the CSC on social media.

    While this only scratches the surface of the work that we did this summer, I think it illustrates perfectly just how valuable and unique this experience was for my personal and professional development. For that, I want to wish Dr. Stevens, McClean, and the entire CSC team well as they continue to grow and begin to take on more exciting projects in the future.

    I would also like to encourage everyone to consider going out of your comfort zone the next time you  find yourself looking for work. Having put myself out there and taken on this opportunity that I originally thought was completely outside of my wheelhouse, I was able to personally and professionally grow in a way that I didn’t expect going into this “interesting” summer, and for that I’m incredibly grateful.

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    Categories: Blog, Students