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Within a 10 month period, the city of Houston will host the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four and the NFL Super Bowl 51. Forty UH students will be on the sidelines and in planning meetings thanks to a first-of-its-kind internship with the events’ host committees.
“It’s called the ‘Super 4 Internship Experience,’” said David Walsh, clinical assistant professor at the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP). The UH Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management is collaborating with HHP to offer the unique internship opportunity.
Twenty sport management students and 20 hospitality students will spend four semesters—two years—learning about the planning and execution of large scale sporting events. But it’s not just about the Big Game. It’s also about all the events and needs in the days before and after the game.
“Students are going to be exposed to marketing, facility management, event management, operations and finance,” Walsh said. “After the events, they’ll participate in discussions about whether or not the results matched the vision and mission.”
Students will work with host committee staffs earning credits towards their hospitality and sports and fitness administration degrees. The behind-the-scenes training will support their classroom instruction, with each semester tailored to the requirements and needs of each event.
“In the fall, they’re going to plan all the events that happen around the Final Four and then execute those in the spring,” he said. “Then that same cohort of students will have experience with one mega event at the same facility where Super Bowl’s going to happen.”
The experience will be invaluable when the future sport management and hospitality professionals enter the industry.
“It’s pretty cool, and nothing like this has been done before,” Walsh said.
