A Good Field to Pursue

The very first Simpson College Sports Administration Symposium kicked off with success in March. Students and business leaders from across the region gathered in Indianola for the inaugural event.

Sehwan Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the C.H. Sandage School of Business led a Graceland team of seven to the symposium. For Dylan Batista ’25, Kellen Cameron ’25, Camry Dillie ’24, Jeb Eslick ’27, Dieter Horten ’24, Carmie Johnson ’26 and Alli Tommer ’24, the day was packed with first-hand learnings from the pros who offered industry insight and career guidance. The students drew inspiration from the panelists’ individual professional paths, the opportunities as well as challenges they met in their field, from the management of teams and centers/arenas over athletic unions and associations to sports media and events.

As keynote speaker, American Rivers Conference commissioner Marie Stroman championed one crucial success factor for the sports industry as a whole: a level playing field for women. One of the symposium highlights for the students was hearing from female professionals in the historically male-dominated business rewriting the playbook with inclusion—sports administration, too, is a team effort.

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The Simpsonian article with background information on the event:
Simpson hosts inaugural Sports Administration Symposium