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Over spring break, many UTampa students participated in campus organized trips to take in different locales and cultures.

Students in the Sport Management and Human Performance programs traveled abroad for a faculty-led experience in Ireland.

For 10 days, Associate Professor James Weiner and Associate Professor JC Andersen, director of the athletic training program, led students on a trip that blended cultural immersion with hands-on learning in the global sports industry.

After landing in Dublin, the group traveled northwest to Donegal, where they experienced a more traditional side of Irish culture.

In Donegal, students participated in outdoor activities like surfing along the Atlantic coast — despite chilly weather conditions — and kayaking, which became a memorable team-building experience for Ravjeer Bhatia ’27, a sport management major. “We were all freezing but we were in it together, and it really was a great way to bond as a group,” he said.

The group also experienced one of Ireland’s most iconic celebrations: St. Patrick’s Day. Students celebrated in one of Donegal’s villages, even participating in a local parade alongside their professors. “It felt much more traditional to celebrate in a smaller village,” Andrew Johansen ’29, a sport management major, said. “Everyone got involved and dressed up for it. It was a blast.”

For the second half of the trip, students returned to Dublin, where they met with representatives from Sport Endorse, an international sport marketing organization. They spoke with professionals about internships and opportunities, including ones that could be done remotely.

Another highlight of Dublin was an introduction to traditional Irish athletics through the Gaelic Athletic Association. Students not only learned about Gaelic football and hurling but also had the opportunity to play them as a group.

For Johansen, the trip reshaped his perspective on the sport management field. “Going abroad showed me how many different opportunities exist globally. It really expanded my understanding of what a career in sports can look like.”

Art in Los Angeles

Back in the U.S., a group of 10 students traveled with the Office of Access and Community Programs to California to explore the arts.

The goal of the trip was to allow students to analyze how arts institutions, cultural districts and media environments shape regional identity, public communication and community collaboration.

They toured two universities: UCLA and Loyola Marymount University.

Na’Im Ferrance ’28 said seeing their graduate programs was his favorite part of the trip.

“Since I'm an art major, I got to see what actual people were doing after college,” he said. “They were starting their careers. And I know a lot of my cohort that was also on the trip got to see a lot, especially with their business programs.”

Another highlight for Ferrance and for another student, Thais de Oliveira Antunes ’29, was the visit to Warner Brothers Studios, where they saw the sets of some of their favorite shows, like “Friends” and “Abbott Elementary.”

“My inner kid had so much fun. I nerded out. I grew up on cartoons and TV shows,” said Antunes.

Lead like Disney

Closer to home, students spent time at Walt Disney World, where they engaged in leadership activities inspired by the company. 

In one exercise led by Disney cast members, students worked in pairs to dream up their own theme parks through drawings. Students were split into groups to come up with possible park themes, like pirates, music and seasons. When the groups came back together, they decided the main theme would be pirates, with seasons and music in different aspects of the park.

Student leaders also conducted their own leadership activities, including a scavenger hunt led by Emily McLaughlin, a junior, and sophomore Natalie Nikolova. Groups of students had to find a villain in Disney Springs and then explain what makes that villain a bad leader.

Working together, one group found the Queen of Hearts in an art store, noting her self-centeredness and meanness toward others.

Tyler Berlin, a freshman studying business information technology who was on the trip, said he learned how Disney can accomplish so much as a large organization.

“They split up the work and stay calm in certain situations,” Berlin said.

Next year, he is moving into a leadership role as president of the Business and Technology Club on campus, he said, where he hopes to plan events that others want to do through feedback and suggestions.