Summer Discovery offers many courses, allowing students to explore everything from screenwriting and psychology to The Science Behind Crime Solving. Read on for a few of our favorite 2024 courses.
Strategies in Sports Management: Sports in Dollars & Sense
Globally, the sports industry is predicted to generate $512 billion in 2023! This course will introduce students to the ins and outs of this massive entertainment industry. We will examine relevant strategies and issues in the industry, covering a variety of topics including marketing techniques, consumer behavior, intercollegiate athletics as a uniquely American phenomenon, income and earnings of athletes, and player safety. We will examine perspectives that range from the consumer to the participant with the goal of covering topics that include sport organization management, sport finances, stadium construction and administration, legal issues in sport, marketing and event management. Learn about the financial management that goes into an enormous entertainment venue or sports arena, like how to supervise, market, finance, schedule, and administer the venue, the events they host, and the sales and booking strategies. Students in this course will attend some mandatory out-of-class field trips. In the past, classes have had tours of the STAPLES Center, Rose Bowl, Dodger Stadium, and various UCLA Athletic facilities.
Fashion Forward: Product Development & Merchandising
Come learn about the fashion industry first-hand in one of the world’s most fashion-forward cities! Discover how the latest styles travel from the runway to your closet. Combine your eye for design with an entrepreneurial lens to learn key strategies behind turning fashion ideas into products, including trend analysis, planning (material selection, cost analysis, supply chains), and the buying process. Learn how new designs are picked, developed, marketed, and sold. This course will examine the business behind the fashion industry and the impact fashion merchandising has on our everyday lives. We’ll explore the fundamentals of fashion; understand basic principles that govern fashion movements; learn how to identify changing trends and innovators; and see what drives industry momentum. If you dream of being the next big name in fashion, start building the skills now for your fashion forward future.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Ethics& Applications
Welcome to the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, and real-world applications. Get ready as we embark on a thoughtprovoking journey into the transformative realm of artificial intelligence and the ethical considerations that guide its use. Artificial Intelligence, broadly known as AI, has rapidly gained momentum impacting our daily lives in ways that we are only beginning to comprehend. We will explore the rise of AI technologies, from machine learning to deep learning, and grapple with the ethical dilemmas that emerge when machines make decisions that impact our lives. From predictions to what we consume on social media, to help desks run entirely through AI, to creating written content with chatGPT; as quickly as a new AI innovation arises, so do the ethical considerations of its impact. You'll be introduced to some of the most prominent areas where AI is currently being used, ranging from public policy predictions and solutions to social and emotional impact on people of all ages. Examining case studies in some of the most pressing ethical concerns, engage in Socratic discussions to weigh the possible current and future implications of this powerful technology. You’ll gain insights into fairness, transparency, bias mitigation, and responsible principles. Consider increasingly complex philosophical debates through the lens of AI and assess how we can harness this technology in socially responsible ways, to be more our friend than our foe.
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Want a future career in business? Try one of these academies next summer at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Digital Marketing & Social Media Academy
YouTube is now the world’s second-largest search engine and TV platform, utilized by 95% of Gen Z and 91% of millennials. If Facebook were a country, it would be third in population size behind India and China. Today, news breaks not on CNN but rather on social media, where real-time user-generated content exposes the next big story (and sometimes the fake ones). Technology has created a seismic shift in the way media is consumed, and by extension the way marketers reach and engage consumers. The shift of advertising dollars away from traditional media to online platforms requires students to be well-versed in digital marketing.
The Digital Marketing and Social Media Academy will give students both the strategic framework and tactical approach to develop and execute goal-oriented digital marketing and advertising campaigns that enhance brands, create a buzz, and motivate desired consumer behavior. Students will learn strategies for how to use platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok, and Twitter - as well as channels like mobile apps, online/display ads, search engine optimization, or email marketing to develop relevant campaigns. Then we will investigate the next step which is identifying the various tools and software used to track and optimize campaign performance. You’ll have the opportunity to examine key concepts around digital strategy, campaign execution, and measurement and apply firsthand knowledge through reading, case studies, industry speakers, and hands-on projects. Lecture topics include user experience design, email marketing, social media and platforms, user generated content, search engine optimization (SEO), mobile marketing, geo targeting, web analytics & measurement.
Innovation in the Music Business Academy
This program will give students a foundational overview of how the music business has been transformed by decades of technological and business innovation. Innovation led to music sampling and musical effects in hip-hop. The rise of music videos created a global, multicultural market for recorded music. Digitization created a renaissance for the industry and would later disrupt it entirely – first with Napster and then with iTunes. Today, streaming services like Spotify, Internet-connected devices, digital and mobile ticketing, and stadium technologies are radically changing the ways audiences consume and pay for music and music-based experiences. This ongoing evolution continues to shape the business – impacting labels, artists, live event promoters and others pursuing careers in music. As a future professional in the music business, your career success will depend on understanding business models, management principles, and techniques for working and leading in an innovative music industry.
Sports Business Academy
The sports industry is undoubtedly one of the most significant industries in the United States, not only because of the billions of dollars that it generates annually, but also because of its unique significance in the lives of millions of Americans. The success of sports businesses is heavily reliant on understanding why sports hold such a place in American society and what drives consumers of the industry. In this full-day academy, you’ll take a deep dive into the ever-changing business of sports and gain an appreciation for the unique challenges involved in managing sports business enterprises. Explore business frameworks including finance, marketing, strategy, and economics. This academy will challenge you with a wide array of sports business-oriented curriculum, help you understand the business and management of sports, and provide you with behind the scenes visits to L.A.’s famous arenas and stadiums.
Business of Entertainment, Media, & Sports Academy
In the Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports Academy at UCLA Anderson School of Management, students will learn business frameworks including finance, marketing, strategy, economics, business ethics, and leadership. Additionally, students will explore the factors driving change in these industries and learn the nuts and bolts of the companies that make billions of dollars entertaining people around the world. Through executive guest speakers, in-class exercises, group discussions, and lectures, students will learn about multiple facets of Entertainment, Media, and Sports, examine the behind-the-scenes work and business principles that drive these industries, and be enlightened to various career paths and fields of study that they may want to explore. Topics include corporate partnerships, talent representation, sports business, marketing, college athletics, NIL deals, music festivals and touring, film and television production, live event production, emerging technology, digital and social media, and more.
There will be a site visit to one of the following Los Angeles-based organizations: YouTube Studios, Dodger Stadium, Myspace, Crypto.com Arena, SoFi Stadium, Sony, or Paramount Studios. Participants will also visit UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and will be offered a behind-the-scenes tour of one of the finest collegiate facilities in the nation.
>> Read on for why UCLA should be at the top of your list for next summer.