Sports and Entertainment Management student turns experience into employment

Christa Dellebovi is still a semester away from completing her MBA, but is already reaping the benefits of her Business School experience. After completing two successful semesters as an intern with the Colorado Rapids, Dellebovi will head into the fall in a full-time position with the team as the Ticket Sales and Service Coordinator. The key she credits to her success? The industry-specific curriculum of the school’s signature Sports and Entertainment Management specialization (SEM).

Preparation for Success

“The courses I’ve taken have been very relevant to the internships,” Dellebovi said. “Having that background allowed me to differentiate myself from other applicants.”

The Rapids, Colorado’s Major League Soccer team and one of the league’s original 10 franchises, plays March through October with a full schedule of promotions aimed at local soccer fans. Dellebovi’s role will be planning promotions and events for group ticket sales as well as season ticket holders. She will represent the Rapids, not just as a team, but as a brand.

Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owner of the Rapids, states that its mission is to provide world-class sports and entertainment for both live and broadcast audiences; welcome fans as family, providing respect and care from the purchase of a ticket to the drive home; and celebrate the best in sport and entertainment by recognizing the diversity and human spirit around us, and by working within our community to improve the lives of all those within the community.

Even with such high standards, Dellebovi is confident that she has the knowledge and skills to take on the challenge.

“The SEM program helped prepare me for various aspects of the position,” she said. “Everything from legal issues related to the sports industry and aligning event goals with the overall marketing and branding strategies of the organization.”

Hands-On Help

While all the Business School programs value education outside the classroom in the form of internships or travel study, due to the highly competitive nature of the industries the SEM program strongly recommends that students participate in one experience, or even both. To give students access to opportunities, the program offers the London Calling: Global Sports and Entertainment Management travel study program and offers assistance in obtaining a semester-long internship. In fact, the faculty prides itself on being proactive in seeking out opportunities and providing access to them for students.

While Dellebovi was not always sure that the sports and entertainment industry was right for her, she credits faculty members with helping her find her way.

“The faculty is amazing,” she said of the SEM program, “Wendy Guild was great, and she was very helpful with brainstorming possible internships and narrowing down the area which would be most beneficial to me.  Ira Selkowitz was my faculty sponsor with the Rapids for two semesters and was very dedicated to ensuring that I got the most that I could out of both internships.”

Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Leaders

With a front office position with a major league team before even graduating, Dellebovi has a tremendous platform from which to launch a life-long career in the sports industry. She plans on staying in the industry and recognizes the valuable impact her internships and education have had on her ability to achieve this goal. When asked if she plans on staying involved with the program after graduation she replied, “Definitely! I plan on staying in touch with the SEM faculty to let them know about networking opportunities for students, internship openings and sporting events.”

Dellebovi’s experience with the SEM program and the Business School has given her the tools to be successful in a highly competitive industry. And while she may still be a student, her success in sports management will one day allow her to do the hiring, possibly even from the deep talent pool of Business School students. This makes her a strong asset to the school, and a shining example of the ability of the school to create future leaders.

Professor Johnson’s research finds beautiful women face discrimination

While many see no downside to being beautiful, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver Business School says attractive women face discrimination when it comes to landing certain kinds of jobs.

In a study released in the May/June Journal of Social Psychology, Stefanie Johnson, assistant professor of management at UC Denver Business School, found that beauty has an ugly side, at least for women.

Attractive women were discriminated against when applying for jobs considered “masculine” and for which appearance was not seen as important to the job. Such positions included jobs like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor.

“In these professions being attractive was highly detrimental to women,” said Johnson. “In every other kind of job, attractive women were preferred.  This wasn’t the case with men which shows that there is still a double standard when it comes to gender.”

The study, co-authored by Robert Dipboye, professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida, Kenneth Podratz, an organizational development manager at UPS and Ellie Gibbons, research assistant at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, found that attractive men suffered no similar discrimination and were always at an advantage.

According to Johnson, beautiful people still enjoy a significant edge. They tend to get higher salaries, better performance evaluations, higher levels of admission to college, better voter ratings when running for public office and more favorable judgments in trials.

A recent Newsweek survey of 202 hiring managers and 964 members of the public concluded that looks matter in every aspect of the workplace and they mattered more for women. When asked to rate nine character attributes on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most important, looks ranked third, above education and sense of humor, the magazine reported.

But in one narrow aspect of life, beauty can be a hindrance, something researchers have called the “beauty is beastly” effect.

“In two studies, we found that attractiveness is beneficial for men and women applying for most jobs, in terms of ratings of employment suitability,” according to the study. “However, attractiveness was more beneficial for women applying for feminine sex-typed jobs than masculine sex-typed jobs.”

In one experiment, participants were given a list of jobs and photos of applicants and told to sort them according to their suitability for the job. They had a stack of 55 male and 55 female photos.

In job categories like director of security, hardware salesperson, prison guard and tow truck driver, attractive women were overlooked. In each of these jobs appearance was perceived to be unimportant. Attractive women tended to be sorted into positions like receptionist or secretary.

“One could argue that, under certain conditions, physical appearance may be a legitimate basis for hiring,” Johnson said. “In jobs involving face-to-face client contact, such as sales, more physically attractive applicants could conceivably perform better than those who are less attractive. However it is important that if physical attractiveness is weighed equally for men and women to avoid discrimination against women.”

The study chided those who let stereotypes influence hiring decisions. Given the importance of hiring and the consequences of making a wrong choice, the authors said, managers need to rely more on information from the individual rather than on stereotypes about physical appearance.

See the article in the Denver Business Journal.