Exploring the Role of Internships in Personal and Professional Development

Abstract

Internships serve as an instrumental tool in many sport management students’ trajectory to becoming impactful employees and leaders in the sport industry. The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to cultivate a better understanding of the development that occurs for students as they progress through an internship program, whether it be personal or professional. Internship outcomes related to personal and professional development alike occurred (e.g., personal maturing and growth, networking, and strategic reflection & change of mindset) and had an array of impacts on the outcomes of the study. Notably, contributing to the Experiential Learning Theory, the data outlined that no programmatic structures are in place to strategically build and/or assess students’ personal development; rather, personal development seemed to occur organically for certain participants in this study. Similarly, participants highlighted that soft skills were discussed as important by participants, but not necessarily explicitly addressed in their internship experience. The distinctive context and nature of COVID-19, embedded throughout these findings, provides a unique lens into the necessity of the abstract conceptualization and active experimentation phases of the Experiential Learning Cycle. The findings herein have important practical and theoretical implications for both sport management educators and internship supervisors in sport.