New internship supports women in sport management
Senior Instructor Susan O'Malley leads the way in arranging new partnership to provide internships for female students
Posted on: February 1, 2019; Updated on: February 1, 2019
By Allen Wallace, awallace@sc.edu, 803-777-5667
The University of South Carolina and Monumental Sports & Entertainment are proud to announce a new internship program for female students majoring in sport and entertainment management. The partnership will provide four paid internships per year to advance students’ career experience and develop the industry’s future leaders.
Senior Instructor Susan O’Malley, former president of the Washington Wizards and Washington Sports and Entertainment, was instrumental in developing the new partnership with MSE.
“I feel that’s part of my role,” O’Malley says. “In what remains a male-dominated field, when all things are equal, many organizations may be more likely to hire John over Jane. I want to help young women break through those barriers.”
At age 29, O’Malley became the first female president of a professional sports franchise and one of the first women in a major front-office position in major league sports. She joined the South Carolina faculty in 2016 and is able to share years of executive and real-world knowledge to help future leaders, of all genders, who want to follow in her footsteps. As an advocate for diversity in leadership, O’Malley has been able to provide opportunities for students to connect industry leaders and has opened doors to transformative opportunities — like the new internship program — to underrepresented students.
The internship program will provide women who are UofSC sport and entertainment management majors with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with industry leaders and explore diverse career options in professional sport and entertainment management. Two internship positions will be available each semester, kicking off in summer of 2019 and then moving to a fall and spring rotation.
MSE, located in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest integrated sports and entertainment companies in the country with one of the most diverse partnership groups in all of sports. Under the direction of its founder, chairman, majority owner and CEO Ted Leonsis, MSE owns and operates nearly a dozen sport and entertainment entities in and around Washington, D.C., including the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics and Capital One Arena.
“We are excited to partner with the University of South Carolina to offer internship opportunities for women and provide both education and experience for future leaders in the world of sports and entertainment,” says Kelly Skoloda, chief people officer, people and culture at MSE.
UofSC is ranked first in the United States in the field of sport sciences, and the sport and entertainment management department is ranked in the top 10 in the world for its undergraduate and graduate degree programs. For more information, visit the sport and entertainment management website.
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