Greetings from Iowa City! Spring is in the air, and as I see the world start to green up around me, I think about the parallels between nature’s glorious spring rebirth and our Sport and Recreation Management program. In the same way that the flowers and trees around my house will thrive this spring thanks to the warming temperatures, rainfall and gardener’s care (my wife has the green thumb at our house), our students are blossoming thanks to the nurturing environment and faculty efforts that bring them along during their years in the UISRM program.

Just as rain and rich soil are essential to the success of our yards and gardens, financial investment is essential to the success of our students. Experiential learning, field trips and other opportunities all require funding, and our UISRM community of supporters has given generously to the program in the past year to help provide the ingredients necessary for the development of our students.

In that sense, our supporters are the soil and the rain of the UISRM program, and this newsletter edition features several positive student outcomes that extend from their generosity:

• UISRM recently awarded $34,000 in scholarships to 27 current and incoming students. Be sure to open the “Why We Give” story to watch the gratitude video created by students who were among those deserving recipients. 
• UISRM recently sent a team of master’s students to Boston to compete in the prestigious National Sports Forum Case Cup Competition, an invitation-only master’s student competition for 12 universities that UISRM has participated in for six consecutive years. Open the “Head Start to Success” story to watch a student-produced video chronicling their experience. 
• UISRM senior Elio Celentino, one of our Leadership & Innovation scholarship recipients, is profiled in a feature story about his journey from San Diego to Iowa and his many achievements after arriving on campus, including serving as the Head Football Operations Student Manager for the Hawkeyes.  
• In the UISRM Achievements section of the newsletter, you’ll see dozens of examples of alumni, such as Hunter Arbogast, that were once supported by gifts to the program that funded scholarships, field trips, internships and other experiences that helped position them for their current success.

One Day for Iowa (“ODFI”) on March 26 will be an opportunity for everyone to help the UISRM garden flourish. During ODFI, programs on campus are rewarded based on the number of supporters that make gifts. It’s a friendly campus competition where everyone wins! No matter the size of your gift, giving during ODFI at this link: https://1dayforiowa.org/srm25 will help grow the next crop of Iowa sport and recreation industry leaders.   

Every individual who makes a gift during ODFI helps UISRM move up the leaderboard as we attempt to qualify for bonus funding. UISRM has finished on top of the leaderboard in three of the past four years, and in 2024, that entitled the program to an additional $6,000 of bonus funding. That bonus funding is enough to support UISRM’s fall symposium that brings industry experts to campus for educational panels and networking functions, all at no cost to students.

Follow the ODFI leaderboard online March 26 and watch our UISRM social media channels in April to see your donations in action when our program takes 60+ students to the Big Ten Conference headquarters in the Chicago area for a field trip to learn from and network with the top executives leading college sports’ greatest conference.

Thank you to the entire UISRM community for the support that has made the program a champion on campus year after year. Please enjoy and share the newsletter with others who may be interested in receiving it and let us know of updated email addresses or new recipients to add to our list. We are always building the newsletter distribution list, and your updates help with that process.

If you have feedback, questions, achievements to share or story recommendations, please contact one of the members of the UISRM newsletter committee listed below:

Alex Voss // Anna Jensen // Kara Kehe

Thanks for reading and being a part of the UISRM community!

Dan Matheson

Professor of Instruction and Program Director

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