Hart School students volunteer at national swim event

A group of 10 undergraduate and graduate students from the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management headed to the Richmond area on April 10 to volunteer at the TYR Pro Swim Series. One of USA Swimming’s national competitions, the event gathers 400-600 of the world’s top swimmers including USA Swimming National Team members, Junior National Team members and top 50 world-ranked swimmers to compete in the meet, which was held at SwimRVA’s Chesterfield County facility.

The trip was led by Ashley Perez and Shae Nelson, second-year SRL graduate students. During the four-day event the volunteers had the opportunity to see different aspects of the process by working security, scanning tickets, ushering and assisting student attendees. In their own words, here are some of the takeaways from students who volunteered at the event.

Ashley Perez –“Meeting professionals and learning about their journeys was inspiring for us as we begin our professional journeys. The Swim RVA staff allowed us to take initiative when working with a large group of kids, allowing us to gain valuable experience. By the end of this trip, you could see clearly the relationships built between us as volunteers, as well as with Swim RVA staff. They allowed us to brainstorm with them to create a proper setup for an autograph session. We met some great professionals and experienced something completely new. Learning more about what it takes to run events was extremely beneficial, and watching some of the best swimmers in the world was quite amazing.”

Courtney Ambrose –“It was so much fun! I was able to look at certain parts of the event that we have studied in class and assess the effectiveness of their event setup.”

Austin Bock—“The experience was incredible and I enjoyed every minute. Seeing everything that goes into these events helped me to gain even greater appreciation for managers and event planners.”

Zach Day –“There was a lot of wisdom and advice for all of us to receive, and it was beneficial. There were long hours, and we were all exhausted, but it was very helpful to see the inner workings of such a national-scale event.”

Jackie Yeh—“I was lucky to be able to speak with an Athletic Director and get some advice from him on my career. The communication skills I learned from class were really helpful in problem solving with the audience. The work experience was invaluable.”