Project Location/Destination: In town
Faculty Leaders: Greg Gaczol & Lenny Goldman
Dates: Monday, March 13 - Friday, March 17
Cost: $900
Special Considerations:
See below.
Objective
DeMar DeRozan. Justin Fields. Candace Parker. Patrick Kane. Many of us are familiar with the faces of Chicago sports. But, what goes on behind the scenes? How do backyard games become billion dollar industries? What does it take to entertain 45,000 screaming fans? Together, we’ll talk to the people that make your favorite teams tick. After meeting with a variety of professionals across the Chicago sports landscape and attending a couple of games, we will apply our takeaways back home. Students will be challenged to identify areas of improvement within Latin’s athletic fan experience, develop projects and pitch them.
Students will be challenged to:
Engage with diverse ideas, individuals, groups, and cultures in order to pitch ideas to enhance our own school’s sports culture.
Collect, comprehend, analyze, synthesize, and critically incorporate source materials gathered from research, observations, and interviews.
Create presentations that are well-organized, focused, and cohesive.
Learn about the history of different Chicago sports teams and their impact on the community.
Learn about the many different types of roles related to Chicago sports teams.
Description
Chicago is a major sports market. There is no shortage of coverage of local sports. We have dedicated news segments about our sports teams, dedicated channels, stadiums, a museum, team shops, and more. With Chicago sports being such a sought after experience, the goal of this project is to give students an opportunity to look at our sports from a perspective that goes beyond a typical fan experience.
During the week students will visit a local broadcast studio, meet a variety of employees who work for professional teams, tour the Chicago Sports Museum and visit a stadium in addition to attending two live events. They will synthesize their observations to determine ways to apply their takeaways back to Latin’s sports programs.
Student Requirements and Expectations
Students will be expected to participate and engage fully in all classroom work, research, group work, discussions and site visits. Students should be comfortable sitting in classroom/conference room space for extended periods with occasional breaks. Students will also be expected to walk and/or be on their feet for a few hours at a time during site visits. Additionally, because we will be attending several night games, expect some days with atypical schedules. You do not need to be interested in sports, but should have an interest in learning about the business and principles within the context of sports and entertainment.
About the Faculty
Before pivoting into education, Mr. Goldman earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri. When not teaching English, he enjoys walking to Cubs games at Wrigley.
Before choosing teaching as a career, Mr. Gaczol attended Columbia College of Chicago as a Sports Journalism major. When not teaching history, he enjoys watching as many Bulls games as possible.
Special Considerations
Food limitations and allergies - Students with food allergies and food sensitivities should understand that there may be times that food options will be limited. In addition, there may be cross contamination risk of allergens, as there will be times where outside food vendors will prepare our meals. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.
Scheduling (In Town) - This project will have time commitment outside of the Monday-Friday (8 a.m. - 4 p.m.) typical school week. Please note that there is an expectation that students are able to attend the whole time the project is running.
Transportation considerations: CTA - Students will take the CTA with faculty.
Transportation considerations: Not meeting at Latin: Students may meet faculty leaders or be dismissed from a location other than Latin.