During the Sunday match against Boston Bruins at Keybank Center, the Buffalo Sabers honored the first promotion of the Scholars Scholars program at Niagara University.
Since the start of the program three years ago, the hotel college, management of sport and tourism in Niagara has selected 10 candidates in each class for a career focused on the Sabers. Sabers researchers meet, learn and, in some cases, trainees for industry professionals with sabers, bandits, invoices and Lecom HarborCenter – opportunities that launch or advance their quitting careers in sport.
“It worked wonderfully,” said Dr. Timothy Ireland, the Niagara provost and vice-president of academic affairs, who worked with the Sabers in the creation of this program. “It is a program of which I am incredibly proud, because it helps students from the local community, it helps the sabers to access a talented potential workforce, and everyone benefits.”
The selected students receive a scholarship of $ 1,500 and embark on a four -year increase. As first -year students, they are presented to employees of the first offices of Buffalo organizations. During their second year, they participated in a case study project and present their hypothetical solutions.
“We were able to meet a variety of staff members as part of the program,” said Evan Blatner, junior of the Sabers scholars. “We met staff in marketing, legal, RP, social media – a great variety, which gave us great experience to hear the history of everyone. And (it is) gave us a little step ahead of what we want to study at university and do after our diploma. ”
During their junior year, Sabers researchers are encouraged to request an internship with the sabers. Accepted or not, they are always twinned with a head office mentor to continue to identify career objectives and familiarize themselves with the work of this mentor. And the elderly, preparing for post-diploma careers, receive continuous mentoring and job maintenance training.
Marc Barnat, one of the 10 of this year’s promotion, joined the Sabers in December as a trainee in commercial development. The programming of the Sabers scholars had bitten its interest in brand partnerships and, in the end, gave it one step ahead in this internship selection process.
“Making these connections has really ended up paying off – having these familiar faces on a call to Microsoft teams,” said Barnat, who also made an unpaid brand partnership with the Niagara sports department. “There were three people on this call that I had met before, so they already knew my way.
“Since then, it has been great to work on the business development team. It’s me and three other trainees, all at university, and we work very well together. ”
The corporate partnership, rightly, is the foundation of the Sabers Scholars program. The sabers benefit, in the words of Dr. Ireland, “a group of very motivated and talented young students who want to work in sport”.
Niagara University, for its part, can reach additional markets full of future future students; Ireland has listed Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and South Ontario as areas including large pieces of the Niagara student body.
“When the sabers skate in Ottawa, we get digital advertising on glass or boards,” said Ireland. “It is simply by emphasizing, here is a higher education institution on the buffalo market. We are embarking on radar screens of hundreds of thousands of families in a region where we are really interested in attracting students. From my point of view, it is a huge victory. And if we take students in this market which are interested in the management of sport, I think it’s great. ”
The program helps Niagara stand out from these students interested in sports by considering school options. The scholars of the sabers, once accepted and registered, take advantage of high -level possibilities to explore these interests and to decide if they in fact want to pursue them; The feedback has been positive to date.
“I understand that each student who jumped in the opportunity of the scholars of the sabers has had a very good experience and who would like to stay in the arena of collegial or professional sports,” said Ireland.
Indeed, the scholars of sabers confirmed both the desire to blatner and barnat to work in sport. The first, from Wheatfield nearby, appreciates his exhibition to a variety of departments and applied this learning as a student manager for the male hockey team in Niagara – a role involving marketing, ticket sales, sponsorships and more.
“In the sports industry, get practical, whether with a team or a program such as Sabers researchers here, is essential,” said Blatner. “So far, it had great value for my career.”
Barnat, from Syracuse, will return home after graduating in an intern with the Syracuse dishes. He first chose Niagara because of his proximity to the sports organizations of major leagues and ended up working for one in the sabers. With a starting start through the scholars of the sabers, Barnat now feels equipped for a successful career in the industry.
“I think the scholarship program is a great way to get experiential learning,” he said. “The growth I saw is cool – to be a shy child at the beginning. Now I am more out of the way and ready to do more, just thanks to going out in the industry, to make myself uncomfortable and to grow from these scenarios.”