Rachel Harris

This past summer, I had the opportunity to spend three weeks in London taking Syracuse’s SPM 365 (Sport Economics) class at the SU London center. As a Sport Analytics major, this class is required for me, but I was able to see it from a new perspective by taking it abroad. While I was there, I was also able to travel to Dublin to meet with a rugby team and a sport analytics company there. Outside of class, I had time to explore London and the surrounding area, so I went to a variety of museums and even Stonehenge.

I wasn’t expecting to be able to travel outside of London, but the train system in the UK made that relatively easy to do. I went to Brighton for a day and was able to see the beach town culture there. I also went to Oxford and saw their historical buildings and library, where I learned a lot about the history of higher education. Additionally, I took a trip to Stonehenge and the town of Bath, where I saw the ancient Roman baths and other ancient structures.

It contributed to my overall academic goals as I completed a class required for my major. For professional goals, I was able to meet in person with a rugby team that I had previously been working with. I was also able to connect with other guest speakers. In the class, I learned about different programs I could use for analytics, which I am now using in my internships with the field hockey and football teams.

I plan to do further research using the programs and tools I used in this class. I already started working on a research paper based on sport economics with one of my professors. I am also continuing the project I was working on for the rugby team in Dublin.

Without the award from Honors, I would not have been able to attend the course, so that was a major piece of support for me. I am very appreciative of the Honors program and am excited to share more about my experience at the Honors Student Showcase later this year.