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On Friday, the University of Tampa will graduate 982 undergraduate students in two ceremonies held on the UTampa campus.

Graduates will go on to careers in everything from sport management to film and security.

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Kristen Cox ’24, a sport management major, used her networking skills to secure an inside sales position at the iconic entertainment venue, Madison Square Garden. 

Cox first worked for the company over the summer as a student associate. Staying in touch with connections proved to be beneficial, as she starts a new role in January. Cox will be working within the sports entity, mainly with the New York Knicks and Rangers, but also with special events, like the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

“I think that's something super important, being active on LinkedIn," said Cox, who used the social platform to interact with people she had met over the summer, engaging with their content and reaching out to set up mock interviews.

“It was just so I can stay top of mind for them, because Madison Square Garden is obviously a huge company,” she said.

Her supervisor at Madison Square Garden suggested she set up networking meetings with three people a week to get to know more about them.

Her sport management class at UTampa reiterated these practices.

“I genuinely don't think I would have been better prepared if I went to a different school to enter the professional sports industry,” she said.

The practicum in sport management introduces students to having an internship. It stresses the importance of being a professional in-person and online, building your resume, polishing interview skills and establishing a presence on LinkedIn.

Though she was well-prepared, Cox said the opportunity is ‘surreal,’ especially as a New Yorker.

“Being from New York, Madison Square Garden is a place that I grew up with, so I can acknowledge its legacy and its reputation,” she said.

During her internship, having kids from across the country move to New York for the position helped her realize the gravity of the position.

“That’s when it really hit me that like this is like the Mecca almost, you know, this is insane.”

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Photo courtesy of Ava Sinopoli '24

Ava Sinopoli ’24, a sport management major, will also be working in sales in the world of sports as a membership sales associate with the Atlanta Hawks selling suite club level seats and season tickets. Sinopoli will also be working game days, checking in on the clients at the suites and making sure everything is going smoothly, and tabling at events to conduct sales.

“Taking sales classes at UTampa, it just really brought out my competitive side,” Sinopoli said.

Her professors at UTampa drove home the importance of LinkedIn, which she credits to how she landed her job.

“I reached out to those hiring managers on LinkedIn and had those uncomfortable conversations and that scored me a position,” she said. “When I go to apply, I’m one step ahead, because I put myself out of my comfort zone.”

Looking for her first full-time job after graduating, Sinopoli wanted to be sure the company would help her grow personally and professionally.

“The Atlanta Hawks was the one interview, one program, that I found where I best fit and where they align with my values as well,” she said.

Sinopoli will simultaneously be pursuing a graduate degree in sport management in an online program that allows her to work full time.

“I can see myself really growing there.”

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Josalyn Delson ’24 economics major, accepted a full-time position at Northrop Grumman Corporation, a billion-dollar aerospace and defense company.

She interned at Northrop since May 2022, working first as a business management analyst, contracts operations intern, and now, she’s pricing aeronautics to sell to the United States Airforce.

“The government will say ‘I want this, and these are the exact specifications that I want it. What does that cost?’” She explained.

Delson then runs through everything, factoring in inputs like labor hours, special rates and everything that could factor into the price. Selling to the government is “strange,” Delson said, but classes like Professional Selling and Sales Management helped apply skills in real-time.

Her internship smoothly transitioned into an official offer in the fall, since getting the internship was as rigorous a process as a full-time hire, said Delson. That security allowed her to have fun with her classes and learn complicated economic concepts without worrying.

Growing up in Melbourne, FL, which is five minutes away from Northrop, certainly made Delson aware of the company, but she didn’t consider a career there until her internship. She’ll work in the Melbourne office instead of remotely.

“It's also the little things I really enjoy [at] Northrop. Specifically, I love their company culture,” she said, “I really like that positive environment that you can't really get online to the same degree.”

The job also fulfills Delson’s patriotism.

“I’m able to sell things that help our country… making sure the people that are on the ground in these wars, what they're using works and it feels like what I'm doing has a purpose,” she said.

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Photo courtesy of Ella Bond '24

Ella Bond ’24, entrepreneurship major, has accepted a position as a business development representative for ReliaQuest, a national cybersecurity company.

She got the job through her involvement with the Southard Institute for Sales Excellent program (SISE), which she joined last year.

“The first day they said the majority of you will walk out of here with an internship, if not a full-time job, because of the insane network and the complete panel of executives that we all have access to.”

In Bond’s case, that proved exactly right.

She competed with SISE in an international sales competition in Orlando, where she met Mackenzie Hackett ’20, a UTampa alum and the senior manager of sales at ReliaQuest. After connecting, Bond went through the interview process and received her offer in November. Bond was given the choice between the Utah and Tampa offices, but ultimately chose Tampa after meeting the representatives.

“There's a good team, really young, vibrant energy, really good office, with a big team of us,” said Bond.

She will work with the team selling business-to-business, prospecting, cold calling and messaging other companies in the “bull pen,” the one floor dedicated to the business development representatives at the building in downtown Tampa.

“I fell in love with the city, and I used to walk around Channelside as a freshman being like, ‘Oh, look at all these working people, maybe that'll be me," she said. “Putting the work in, and using the resources that the University provides and the sales program, my dream came true. It’s good to work in my favorite part of Tampa.”

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Photo courtesy of Cam Smith '24

Cam Smith ’24, film, animation and new media major will mix dialogue at Audio Visual Cub, a New York-based audio and music post-production company in film and television.

He learned editing tips and tricks when Professor Gregg Perkins offered free Saturday classes to learn professional software.

Smith met the owner of the company, Parker John Phillips, at a networking event in Georgia. He saw Smith’s film “You Are.”

“He liked my dialogue and how I was able to mix in normal-sounding, general dialogue and then turn it into VHS or TV audio,” said Smith. He uses the same editing software as the company.

Phillips gave Smith an audio file to edit, testing his skills. If he succeeded, he got the job.

“As a dialogue mixer, you're like a surgeon a lot of the time. You are finding the issue, taking out the issue and repairing what it is that needs to connect better,” he said.

Smith said sewing up the raw file had a lot of problems.

“He threw me a thing that was kind of impossible to fix, but he wanted to see how I went around trying to fix it.”

Smith got the job. After the training process, he starts full-time in March.

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For information on the December Commencent, check out utampa.edu/commencement/december-commencement.