The internship and practicum opportunities you will experience as part of our program represent the starting point of your professional career. Supplementing our award-winning curriculum, the contacts, work experience and industry knowledge you will acquire through these real world experiences will provide you with a solid foundation on which to build a evolving successful career.  The practicum is the final requirement in the pre-professional or lower division and comes at the end of your sophomore year. For the practicum, you will use your pre-professional level coursework to its fullest advantage and begin to establish or build on a network of professional contacts within the sport and entertainment industries.

A practicum, SPTE 295, which is the first of two internship experiences that are required by our major, occurs once all pre-professional courses have been completed. Like the professional internship, which occurs after all coursework has been completed in the senior year, the practicum is a, "total emersion experience", lasting a minimum of thirteen weeks and a minimum of 520 hours.  A practicum may be taken during the spring, summer or fall semesters depending on the cycle of business for the respective portion of the customer industry that the student would like to work in after graduation.

Although you will learn and apply networking skills constantly throughout your Sport and Entertainment Management experience, the practicum affords you an opportunity to apply them for extended periods in challenging, real world settings in time to help with career choices prior to graduation.  Based what you learn while on the Practicum, you either continue toward the same career goals or modify them; as a result of what you have learned from the exposure to the customer industry. The choice of electives in the junior and senior years at Carolina should also be based on customer industry mentor input received while on your practicum.

Student Practicums and Internships that have been served through our department include the Charlotte Knights, Feld Entertainment, Global Spectrum, GMR Marketing, Live Nation, NASCAR, the New Orleans Super Dome, the New York Knicks, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ticketmaster, the Gamecock Club and USC Athletics. These are just a sample of the many opportunities for our students.

Examples of past student internships include such companies and organizations as the Atlanta Falcons, CNN Sports, the Dallas Cowboys, Charlotte Panthers and ESPN.

The Internship, SPTE 495, is a six (6) hour course of study and is the capstone experience for our undergraduate program. The Internship is taken after all other degree requirements have been satisfied.  Typically, if a student has done his or her homework, their internship should take them right into their first job in the sports and entertainment industry after graduation