Falk College's Women in Sport Initiatives

Opportunities for Students: Clubs/Organizations

The Syracuse University chapter of the Women in Sports and Events (WISE) club is a voice and resource for women who aspire to work in the professional field of sports and events. Students in WISE are involved with numerous events and activities over the course of the academic year, including networking trips, fundraisers, interview workshops, professional development seminars, community service, and alumni events on campus.

Each spring semester, WISE hosts an immersion and networking trip to a city with a rich sports culture. The trip is funded by Jake and Suzanne Doft, who are in their fifth year of sponsoring the trip in honor of their daughter, sport management graduate Dara Doft ’22.

In February 2026, students traveled to Charlotte where they engaged with leaders and toured facilities of the Charlotte Hornets, Atlantic Coast Conference Headquarters, Carolina Courage, Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Panthers, Tepper Sports, and Bespoke Sports and Entertainment. Previous WISE trips took students to Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

WISE Instagram

Established in Fall 2020, Falk College’s Sport Analytics Women (SAW) Club strives to create a group of like-minded individuals to build relationships, assemble a support system and study sport analytics during their time at Syracuse University and into their post-graduate careers. The club’s mission is to collaborate and serve as a positive advocate for women in sport analytics by connecting with each other as well as with professionals in the industry. The goal of creating relevant opportunities for club members is achieved through tutorials on programs such as R, SQL, Python and Tableau; group research projects; professional development; and hosting guest speakers.

Members attend local sport competitions, participate in games highlighting women's sports, and connect with industry professionals through guest speakers and panels. In addition to professional development, SAW also has engaged in research projects. Most recently, they collaborated with Syracuse University Women’s Hockey team and developed a Shiny app in RStudio to track statistics, create visualizations, and provide ongoing analytical assistance to the team.

SAW Instagram

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Experiential Learning

Through an exclusive partnership with Syracuse University, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) offers a 10-week summer internship program that allows Falk College students the opportunity to seek paid experience in marketing, public relations, communications, strategy, sporting and more. NWSL is one of the fastest-growing professional sports leagues in the U.S., powered by 16 clubs and a deep roster of the world’s best players, and built on record-shattering fan, media, and commercial growth. Syracuse is the only higher education institution invited to offer these opportunities. Students have also interned with the WNBA Player’s Association and 261 Fearless, a global non-profit that empowers women through education and running, fostering self-worth and healthy living. Syracuse alumna Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially complete the Boston Marathon, is co-founder of 261 Fearless.

Learn more about internships

On immersion trips, students visit cities in the U.S. and across the globe, connect with sport and sport-connected professionals, and apply classroom concepts in real time. In 2025, students traveled to Ireland, Italy and Los Angeles.

Women in Sport and Entertainment (WISE) is an annual immersion trip focused on connecting with student with leaders in sport and gaining access to women sports. Students have traveled to Charlotte, Atlanta, and Philadelphia in recent years.

Spotlight on Faculty

As the first college of its kind dedicated to sport, we combine academic rigor with a strong athletic reputation to advance research, education and innovation at the highest levels. Our faculty are exploring sport from every angle, conducting important research, and generating new knowledge. Faculty research highlights:

A column by Lindsay Darvin, Ph.D., MBA, Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Management, which was originally published on Forbes.com, examined the growth of women’s sport. Read “Transforming Women’s Sports: How Women Leaders Are Transforming Women’s Sport Visibility and Growth.” Note: This column was originally published on Forbes.com as part of a regular contributor column by Falk College of Sport Assistant Professor of Sport Management Lindsey Darvin.

Alexia Lopes, Ph.D., MBA, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Sport Management, and co-author, studied how women professional athletes choose to build their personal brands on social media and how followers engage with their posts through likes. Their analysis of 1,405 photos of WNBA athletes provided numerous insights, including “WNBA players clearly utilized their Instagram primarily to either publicize their business or their personal lives, and only a small percentage (10.82%) was devoted to the athlete’s sport, other sports or athletes, pop culture or landmarks and Internet memes.”

Kerianne Rubenstein, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Analytics, recently co-authored “Look What You Made Me View: Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs’ TV Ratings” in the Journal of Sports Economics. Through analysis of ratings and viewership from 247 NFL games played in the 2022 and 2023 seasons to assess the effect of Taylor Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce on the Chiefs’ television audience. The findings were astounding: Chiefs’ viewership increased by about one-third beginning with Swift's first time attending a Chiefs’ game.

One-of-a-kind Partnership

Women Leaders in Sports

Falk College of Sport announced its partnership with the nationally renowned group Women Leaders in Sports (WLS) in the summer of 2024. WLS is a 45-year-old organization dedicated to enhancing women’s influence and transforming leadership in sports. Through the partnership, students have access to WLS’s national network of professionals working in the sport industry, providing mentorship and professional development opportunities. Falk College is currently WLS’s only higher ed partner.

Since establishing the partnership, Falk College has sent a contingent of students, faculty, and staff to WLS’s National Convention, an annual event bringing together hundreds of professionals from the sport industry for three days of expert panels, discussions, networking and more. It’s an experience spoken highly of by Falk College students who have taken part, as seen in the below video.

This could be me. I could do this. I could be one of these women leaders in the future.

Emily Gilbert Falk College student

Emily Gilbert talks with another student at an event

News Highlights

Our alumni and students are thriving in the fields of sport and human performance. Don’t just take our word for it. Get an in-depth view of our impact through the stories and voices of our learners and graduates.