Hiram College Partners with Women’s Sports Nonprofit to Engage Students in Experiential Learning
HIRAM, OHIO – September 12, 2024 - This fall, Hiram College and the Cleveland-based nonprofit, Play Gap, are excited to announce a formal partnership to offer hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in sport management.
The two organizations have worked together for over a year, adding practical group projects to the coursework in the sport management undergraduate and graduate programs that directly support Play Gap and their mission to champion equity and accessibility in sport for adult women.
In 2023, when the co-founders of Play Gap, Barbara Anthony and Elise Vue, met Jo Line, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Hiram College, it was clear that their values aligned. Play Gap’s intersectional approach looks at the connection of sport, mental health, and racial and gender equity, a lens through which Dr. Line was already infusing into their teachings.
The collaboration began that fall semester as part of Hiram’s new online Master of Arts degree in Sport Management. Play Gap, formerly the Northeast Ohio Women’s Sports Alliance (NOWSA), was investigating the feasibility of a historical archive about women in sports in the greater Cleveland area, including high school, college, professional, and recreational levels. Students in the course Applied Sport Management Skills worked with the Hiram College Library to learn more about physical displays and researched different online platforms to inform the project’s time and budget requirements.
With another group of students in the spring semester, the partnership culminated in a live and recorded event titled “Bridging the Play Gap through Racial and Gender Equity in Sport,” which featured a panel discussion and display of local women’s sports memorabilia.
“As a volunteer-based organization, Play Gap is always seeking mutually beneficial relationships. With Hiram, we know we are getting high-quality talent while offering the students real world experience and networking, so they are better informed for work after graduation,” explained Vue.
This fall, Dr. Line is teaching the Applied Sport Management Skills course, in which the next cohort will work with a total of four different local sport organizations. Through Play Gap, students will research and catalog the 20-year history of their partner, the Northcoast Vintage Players, a recreational softball league for women ages 45 and up, that plays in Euclid, Ohio. The goal is to highlight these athletes’ stories and ensure that the origins of the community do not disappear.
xxx
Play Gap is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to champion equity and accessibility in sport for adult women. They believe women everywhere should have equal access to safe, inclusive sports opportunities, and since 2018, have connected with sports organizations and individual community members to spread the physical, social, and mental health benefits of sports to more women. Visit www.play-gap.org to learn more.
Founded in 1850, Hiram College provides students of all backgrounds with an attainable private education that teaches the 21st-century skills needed to thrive professionally and personally in the face of inevitable and constant change. Built on a community that fosters student-faculty collaboration, the College equips all students with the tools necessary to embrace active learning in the classroom, in Ohio, and beyond through technology, internship, study away, research, and other experiential opportunities for growth and development. Recognized by Colleges of Distinction, The Princeton Review, U.S. News and World Report, and as a top baccalaureate college by Washington Monthly, Hiram enrolls over 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students in academic programs on its Northeast Ohio campus and online.