Going for the Gold: York College Students Connect with Colorado Sports Professionals
In March, a group of sixteen students and two professors flew to Colorado to explore and interact with the professionals that worked at the Colorado Springs Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.
As Isabella Ewing ’25 and Jordyn Woodling ’25 scoured the internet for different opportunities they could pursue related to their studies in sports, they discovered a unique program being offered on the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s website where college students could visit their training facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado and interact with the staff.
Nearly a year later in March, Isabella and Jordyn found themselves and 14 other students, many of whom were studying in fields related to sports and hospitality, in front of the Colorado Springs Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. Inside, numerous professionals with careers in training and providing hospitality to their visiting Olympic and Paralympic athletes awaited them.
“You don’t think about the people behind the scenes other than the athletes,” Isabella said, thinking back to an engaging discussion she had with one of the facility’s athletic trainers, “but she does so much for them.”
The Colorado Springs Olympic and Paralympic Training Center is a world-class athletic center that serves as training grounds for Team USA athletes. It’s also the headquarters for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. They offer many camps and training programs through the facilities there, along with dining halls and clinics to cater to any accommodations their athletes may require.
This is the first time York College of Pennsylvania students participate in the training center’s program. It was a never-before-planned trip that Isabella and Jordyn wanted to experience and share with others with similar interests to them. They ended up recruiting Dr. Molly Sauder, Dean of the Graham School of Business, and Dr. Greg Kaliss, Associate Professor of History, to help put together a grant proposal and create a three-day abroad trip and class in Colorado.
After much careful consideration, it was decided that each student participating in the trip would focus on a research topic of their choice related to the sports industry or history while being able to talk with the two professors and professionals there about their specialties and experiences. At the end of the Spring Semester, the students would present their findings at the Celebration of Sport event.
“This class was designed to help students do original research projects across lots of different areas that might be of interest to them,” Dr. Sauder said. “And some of those interlap with my own interests, and some are entirely different, but that’s where our team-teaching comes in.”
The trip allowed students to explore a variety of research topics that connected with the sports industry in some capacity. While some students looked into how social media plays a role in how sports-related companies market their products or training in general, others examined how athletes were educated on matters related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially when it came to interacting with international athletes and personnel.
Alex LaVerdure ’25, a Sport Management major, focused his studies on how practitioners view the RICE method for treating injured athletes and whether or not the method is still relevant today. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate.
“The research that I’ve done already with my survey has been amazing,” LaVerdure said, “and talking to Jenna Wilkerson, who is the Director of Sports Medicine at the USOPC, her insights were amazing. And then now seeing how they align to what she said about RICE and how these practitioners that I surveyed talk about RICE, you really see how it all comes together.”
The Colorado class had many more amazing experiences beyond conducting research for their topics. They got to participate in games of wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball. They explored the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. Most of all, the students got to bond and foster friendships that have stayed strong months after returning home.
The trip would not have been possible without the grant from the Graham Center for Collaborative Innovation. The professors are hopeful about being able to repeat the trip, and many students expressed how much the chance to travel without having to worry about an overwhelming financial burden meant to them.
“York does a lot of experiences that are open to any majors or anything that allows travel and it’s not that expensive,” Morgan Jones ’26, a Hospitality and Tourism Management major with a Hospitality Marketing minor, said. “This trip had a grant, so we were just able to pay for our food, which is also less stressful to know you can travel but not have to empty your pockets and still try to get your education.”
