Sports Administration
Statement of Rationale

          I signed a letter of intent in the spring of 1994 to attend Ohio University.  I received an athletic scholarship to wrestle for the university.  I was neither interested in academics nor did I have any idea of what I wanted to major in.  I decided to enter the University College as an undecided student.  Wrestling kept me busy but I did not feel like I was accomplishing anything academically.  Watching and listening to my peers, I noticed that they seemed to have a grasp on their future, and I felt I was going in circles.  After injuring myself in a wrestling match, I realized that my future as not in wrestling.  Unsure about what I wanted to do, I decided to drop out of college and explore the opportunities that the world had to offer.  During my time away from college I was an assistant wrestling coach for Thomas Worthington High School.  I realized that I wanted to coach and participate in the business side of a professional sports program.  However, I learned that the business world is very competitive and that in order to have a foot in the door, I needed to have a college degree.  I entered Columbus State and started taking business classes.  I soon transferred back to Ohio University.  I was not able to enter the College of Business because I did not meet the requirements.  I tried to take required classes, but soon found out that math was not one of my strong points.  I had some friends in the College of Communication and they seemed to enjoy their majors, so I decided to take Communication courses.  I still did not have the major and my GPA was decreasing because I was not interested in the field.  I was not taking advantage of my situation.  Time went by and I found myself with 135 credit hours with a mixture of business and communication classes.  I had a friend who was in the sport industry program, and the major seemed very interesting to me. When I decided to enter the college, the curriculum for classes changed and I would have ended up with over 225 credit hours, plus it was going to take an extra year to finish.  I explored my options while taking PESS classes.  I did not want my communication and business classes that I took previously to go to waste.  At this point I started to get information on a Bachelor of Specialized Studies.

          Now that I am in my final quarters of school, I thought it would be more meaningful to me to enter the Specialized Studies program.  The BSS program will allow me to combine my Communication, Business, and Sport Industry courses.  I am interested in the sales and marketing aspects of the sports industry.  The Communication courses prepare me to communicate effectively in business relationships, persuading clients into purchasing my product or service.  The Business classes will also contribute to my specialized major by giving me the knowledge in the areas of marketing and management.  My MIS courses gave me the tools, such as spreadsheets and databases to implement good accounting practices.  The Sport Industry courses give me specialized understanding in the area where I want to apply my business knowledge.

          By developing my own major, I will have the opportunity to experience the business environment from the inside while completing an internship during my last quarter of studies.  After graduation, my long-term goal is to be hired by a company that incorporates the skills and knowledge that I gained through my internship.  I hope that my BSS degree will serve as a foundation for my work ethic and desire to succeed for years to come.

          I believe that the BSS program benefits me more than any other option because it makes it possible for me to combine three areas of study - Communication, Business, and Sports Industry.  Most importantly, it is an obtainable goal, one that I feel passionately about achieving.