Shenandoah Sends Students to Arizona For Hands-On Learning Experience During Super Bowl Week
Students Will Work NFL Events, Network with Sport Management Professionals, Tour Venues
Eight Shenandoah University students and two faculty members left for Arizona on Monday, Feb. 6, to begin a weeklong experiential learning trip centered around Super Bowl LVII and its related events.
Students Demitri Matenopoulos ’23, Chloe Butler ’25, Tyler Deal ’23, Will Jenkins ’23, Janelle Anderson ’25, Patrick Maneval ’23, Anthony Cowan ’24, and Sean Perry ’24, along with Director of Sport Management Brian Wigley, Ed.D., and Assistant Professor of Sport Management David Eyl, J.D., will spend the week leading up to the NFL championship game working at various Super Bowl-related events in and around Glendale, Arizona. Additionally, the group will tour athletic facilities, network with professionals in the sport management industry and spend a day at the PGA’s Phoenix Open.
The trip, the latest in a long run of such experiences that Shenandoah University has provided for students at some of the world’s biggest sporting events, is a collaborative effort between SU’s Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Student Leadership and Development, and the School of Business.
Shenandoah’s students will be paid by the NFL to perform various tasks related to the big game, including activities at the Super Bowl Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center and game-day events at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, where the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will face off on Sunday, Feb. 12.
The group will also visit the offices of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, meet a representative from the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, and tour Chase Field (home of the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks) and Phoenix Raceway.
The university celebrated the trip and its attendees with a send-off event at Halpin-Harrison Hall, Stimpson Auditorium, on Friday, Feb. 2, that included comments from Dr. Wigley, Astrid Sheil, Ph.D., dean of the School of Business; Yolanda Barbier Gibson, D.A., vice president for student affairs; and Matenopoulos, a media and communications student and team captain of the trip.
This is going to be maybe the most impactful part of your education here at Shenandoah. You’re about to activate everything you’ve been learning in class, all the theories you’ve been reading, all the things you’ve been listening to your professors about. And what’s going to happen is not only will you be able to do some of the things that you see in the book, but when you come back, you’ll be able to say things to other students like, ‘Let me tell you how it works in the real world.’ That’s when you own that knowledge. And once you own it, there’s a sense of confidence that cannot be challenged. You know because you’ve done it.”
Astrid Sheil, Ph.D., dean of Shenandoah University’s School of Business
