“Trip of a Lifetime:” York College Sport Management and Media Students Travel to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX
One week before the Super Bowl, eight students and one professor flew to New Orleans to assist the NFL in preparing for one of the biggest annual weekends in sports history.
As Super Bowl LIX draws near, planning for many festivities is underway. Fans are excited to travel to New Orleans, where the game will be held in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, or plan get-togethers with friends and family to watch from the comfort of their homes. Regardless of the manner, millions of viewers are sure to tune in to the annual championship football game.
Among the many traveling to New Orleans, a group of York College of Pennsylvania students will attend the game and assist with the events and celebrations leading up to the anticipated Sunday game.
Donna Grove, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Sport Management, has taken York College students on this trip since 2020. In past years, students have flown to Miami (2020), Phoenix (2023), and Las Vegas (2024) for the Super Bowl. York College took a hiatus from traveling due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022.
This year, Dr. Grove is taking eight students to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX. They flew to Louisiana on February 4th and will return on February 10th, the day after the event.
Already, the students are excited about the event, the experience, and the connections they will make leading up to the game. Not to mention, they will be able to apply what they have learned in class to a real-world experience.
“We do a lot of experiential learning, but it really is a culminating event where they can actually see everything that we’ve talked about…and actually have a hand in the production of the biggest athletic event in the U.S. right now. To experience working at that level…is just tremendous,” Dr. Grove said.
A Reason for Going
The process for selecting who could come on the trip has always been somewhat competitive, considering the number of students that apply every year.
As part of the application process, interested students were required to submit a five-minute video resume detailing why they felt they would be an ideal candidate for the trip. Other factors, such as how involved the students were and what they believed were their strengths and weaknesses, were also considered. Most importantly, Dr. Grove and other colleagues from the sport departments reviewed what the students felt would be their most significant takeaway from being able to travel to such a celebrated event.
Tyler Ratley ’25, a senior Sport Media major and student attending the Super Bowl trip, shared that his desire to go was rooted in not only wanting to travel to such a grand event but also in the unique perspective he felt he could provide as a Sport Media major.
“We had to sell ourselves within the video of why we should pick you to go and what you bring to the table,” Tyler said. “I really brought my sport media side to it with editing and filmmaking. So with one of the guys I’m going with to the Super Bowl, we’re going to actually film a lot of it and hope to send some footage to either YCP or the Sport Management Facilities and that department as well.”
Tyler had been applying for the Super Bowl trip since he was a first-year student, so he was ecstatic when he received the news of his selection. The experience was even more special for him when he learned he would be the only Sport Media major attending the trip this year.
“I…just kept high hopes ever since. But it makes sense that mostly seniors and juniors go, just so you can learn what…[to] take from the classes to take on the trip. So it makes a lot of sense now that I’m a senior,” Tyler said.
Another senior coming on the trip, Isabella Ewing ’25, is a Sport Philanthropy major with a Business Administration minor and Master’s in Public Policy. Her reasoning for going was to see how the Super Bowl would affect the New Orleans community, which, by extent, would give her more insight into how such large sporting events can impact communities.
“I was on the fence about it because I wasn’t 100% sure how I would be able to spin it for a Sport Philanthropy [major] because…[i]t’s a lot more community-based in my major,” Isabella said.
“I think a big thing for me when I get down there is to see how [people connected to the Super Bowl] interact with the community around them and that sort of thing. Like, how is the community feeling about having a Super Bowl there, because major sporting events impact the economy a lot down there and also the job market.”
Preparations for the Work Ahead
Once the group of students traveling to the Super Bowl was selected, preparations for the trip began.
Hotel accommodations and flights were reserved. Work with the NFL to register the students and conduct the proper background checks was underway. Planning to ensure the students received the proper credentials and training needed to work the event had started. Dr. Grove even looked for additional learning opportunities not connected to the Super Bowl for the students to participate in.
Before they left for winter break before the 2025 Spring Semester, Dr. Grove met with all of the students to review expectations, their itinerary, and any other important information related to their travel.
Though they don’t know their exact assignments, the team knows what events they will work on. The two biggest events they will help with are the Super Bowl Breakfast and the Game Day.
The Super Bowl Breakfast is one of the largest annual public banquets held the day before the Super Bowl and will be held this year on February 8th. Past and active NFL players, coaches, and team owners are among the thousands of attendees who come to celebrate and witness a current NFL player be awarded the Bart Starr Award for demonstrating, according to the website, “outstanding character, integrity, and leadership in his home, on the field and in the community.”
As for the actual Game Day, other colleges will be involved in a specific Super Bowl task that varies yearly. York College will work a double shift with the media this year to ensure each media group arrives at their designated locations on time.
The group will also participate in an all-university and college networking event organized by several faculty members from other institutions. At the event, all students attending will have the opportunity to network with speakers, sports professionals, and each other.
The Opportunity to Connect
One of the trip's main objectives is to allow the students to use everything they have learned from their classes to make important connections. The Super Bowl will give the students ample opportunities to network with people from the sport industry and get hands-on experience for their resumes.
Liam MacDonald ’25, a Sport Management major with a minor in Athletic Coaching, understands the importance of creating connections at such an important event.
“As a senior, networking is crucial for the next moves that I make after graduation,” Liam said. “So, working…such a massive event, which draws in so many people all over the country and even the world, it’s such a great opportunity to get your name out there and try to meet as many people as you can and help elevate your potential opportunities of working for a sports organization or even just a sport-affiliated organization.”
“It’s definitely a dream to work for an NFL organization. The sports industry has gotten highly competitive within the last five to six years due to the amount of schools that are starting to have Sport Management majors. So networking is obviously super, super important, and the entire time that we’re there, it’s practically an open door for us to just talk to anybody.”
Isabella shared a similar sentiment, saying, “the interactions that we’re going to have during the Super Bowl are going to be super positive, and everything that we learn from it is going to be very impactful to us because we can talk about that in a job interview. We can talk about that on our resumes. We can pull from these high-impact projects for multiple other things.”
While the chance to network with professionals is certainly something to look forward to, many group members are just happy to be traveling to a new location. Just about everyone knows each other, having made previous trips together or shared classes due to similar interests in what they study. To them, it’s a chance to travel and make memories.
“I’m mostly excited about the trip itself,” Autumn Niemiec ’26, a junior Sport Management major, said. “I haven’t been to New Orleans. To be in the Super Bowl environment is really awesome, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to experience it again.”
“It’s one of the most exciting things ever,” Tyler said. “I’m not much of a traveler, so I’ve actually never ridden in a plane. It’s all nerve-wracking for me, but I’m super excited about it.”
Coming Full Circle in the Classroom
The work for the eight York College students doesn’t end once the game ends. After the students return to campus, they will participate in a peer mentorship program.
The small group will create presentations about their experiences at the Super Bowl and present them to different classes that other Sport Management and Media students are taking. There, they will discuss how the work they did relates to the class they are presenting in.
This can take many forms, such as students coming to a marketing class and explaining how marketing was handled during the Super Bowl. Or they can be other general Sport Management or Sport Media classes and how what they learned in that class helped them when working with professionals.
Many of the Sport Management and Media students who went on this trip shared that some of their inspiration to apply for the Super Bowl trip originated from friends and past classmates talking to them in that very setting. Now, many of them will be able to share their experiences and even advise future applicants for next year’s trip.
“Just keep up with good grades and keep trying everything in your power to network and get the opportunity to make it happen,” Tyler said, emphasizing the importance of putting forth a good application and presenting as a strong candidate. “…[Y]our elevator pitch…really matters when it comes to getting selected for this. And the faculty will really see that and see it in you. The big thing is having them see the success you can show to prove that you are able to do this trip.”
“I would say don’t hesitate…[and] just apply,” Autumn said, focusing on not being afraid of taking up a new challenge. “Don’t overthink it because, in the end, it is a really great opportunity, and it’s once in a lifetime. I wouldn’t really hesitate about it as much as I did.”
Liam shared similar thoughts. “I think my big piece of advice is just apply for it,” he said. “I know it would not be fun if you didn’t get it, but it’s also such a great feeling after you get the email from Dr. Grove that you did get selected for it. And it feels really good before graduation, too. It makes it feel like you’ve really really done something pretty special, and it kind of gives you that boost of confidence going into interviews and stuff like that for the job force…None of us really thought maybe we’d get it…and now, we’re preparing for one of the trips of a lifetime.”
Isabella, having gone on two previous trips to St. Louis, Missouri, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, believed that the best advice she could share was to keep trying and apply to every available opportunity. Even if it ends in failure, there is always a chance for next time.
“You just have to put your name in the hat because [the professors] are going to see, ‘Hey, she or he applied this time. He or she applied again. Maybe we should look at that.’ You just need to keep putting your name out there because that’s how you’re going to get recognized,” Isabella said.
“And if you think you are qualified, you more than likely are. You just need to believe in yourself, and if you’re not sure if you’re actually going to enjoy it, just take a minute, think about it, and the worst case is you deny it. If you get accepted, you can always deny it, but who would deny such a great opportunity?”
