Hi! My name is Reid. I am an incoming sophomore in high school from Chicago IL, and through Summer Discovery I am taking the Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports at UCLA Anderson School of Management. As we have come to the close of the first week of classes in an action packed opening week, we look ahead to this weekend’s coming adventures.
On arrival day, after getting settled in and unpacked everyone was free to explore the campus as they pleased. Later that night we attended a short introductory explanation, followed by smaller meetings with our floor group where more introduction and rule explanation took place.
The following morning we were walked to class where we did more introductory activities and met our amazing professors. Our morning professor, Felisa Israel of 10Fold Entertainment, has had an unbelievable career in Entertainment all throughout professional and collegiate sports, and it is an amazing experience to be able to hear her stories and lessons each and every day. Her passion, similar to about half of the class is in Entertainment, surprisingly contradictory to the blind eye of where she has taken her career, but the truth is, sports are entertainment, and attending an event is so much more than the game being played. She does a great job of speaking on all three aspects of the class (entertainment, media, and sports).
Our afternoon professor, Mark Francis, a sports management professor here at UCLA Anderson, throughout the first week of classes has solely spoken on the sports aspect of the class. If you are have a heavy interest in sports and the business behind them and the leagues they compete in, then this class is definitely for you.
On the day-to-day side of things, we have had three guests come in and speak with us. On day 3, we had Bradley Edwards who has an impressive background of education at MIT and Harvard, and of work at ESPN, NFL, and his new project, Pac Pro Football. That afternoon we heard from Jennifer Lau, VP of Action and Lifestyle Sports division at IMG. Most recently, on day 4, we had Woody Thompson of Eyeboogie Inc. All of which were great speakers and did a wonderful job of inspiring the class.
Outside of class, we have had the options each day to choose between a few different excursions. Personally, I have gone to Melrose/Fairfax, which have some really cool shops over there. I also went to Santa Monica Pier where we went in the ocean, hung out on the beach, and explored the pier with my friends that I have met from all over the world including Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Maryland, New York, Kuwait, etc. So far this has been an amazing experience, and I cannot wait for the adventures to come in the following couple of weeks!
Student Blogger: Reid Milkens