Do You Like Sports and Entertainment? Get Certified!

Texas Tech’s College of Media & Communication is offering two new undergraduate certificates this fall—in sports and entertainment media.

Students will still declare a major, but the certificates allow them to concentrate on an area that interests them and to get credit for the classes they have taken on the topic. Showing potential employers what they focused on in college gives certificate students an advantage in the competitive world of media and communications, said David Perlmutter, dean of the College of Media & Communication.

“For example, sports media, one of our certificate programs—a lot of students are in public relations or advertising, communication studies or journalism or electronic media, but if you ask them what they’re interested in, they’ll say sports media,” Perlmutter said.

He said he was surprised to find very few certificate programs available to students when he first arrived at Texas Tech in 2013.

“They are very popular at other universities around the country,” Perlmutter said. “When I was at the University of Iowa before I came over here, there were hundreds of certificate programs.”

Jordann Fowler/The Hub@TTU

Todd Chambers, the college’s associate dean for undergraduate affairs, said the faculty members felt they had a level of expertise in those areas. Each major already offers entertainment and sports media classes, Chambers said, so the certificate allows interested students to make those classes a priority.

Picture provided by Alyssa Chrisope.

Alyssa Chrisope, a junior journalism major, has always been interested in sports media and said she is glad the college is giving students an opportunity to focus on what they love.

“Journalism isn’t just journalism anymore,” she said. “There’s so much specialized journalism, and I would definitely take that opportunity to specialize in sports because I think that would be more attractive to employers.”

Chrisope writes for the Scout affiliate Raider Power, which covers Tech sports—including football, basketball and some baseball. She said she knows several colleagues who would be excited to hear about the new program.

“They’re so desperate wanting to work for sports,” she said. “They’re even just volunteering with the TV station and running cameras and just doing whatever they can to get into sports.”

Picture provided by Alyssa Chrisope.

Journalism is one of the most competitive fields, she said, so it is crucial for students to start doing anything possible to get involved in the field they are interested in.

“It’s just all in all more productive than taking classes that won’t really excel my career,” she said. “I’m really excited that Tech has this planned for students because I think a lot of students will take advantage of it, and ultimately I think Tech will have an even higher percentage of students getting higher-level jobs in journalism when they graduate.”

Chrisope, who had been searching for electives toward her journalism degree, said the new certificate program came at the perfect time for her.

Both programs take 12 credit hours to complete. Dean Perlmutter said there are some required classes, but most are electives, including some outside the college, such as Fundamentals of Sports Marketing in the Department of Kinesiology and Sports Management.

There is a list of classes students can take to earn a certificate. Chambers said the college wanted to provide multiple options because some classes will not be taught every semester, so the goal is to avoid delaying students’ graduation.

Sarah Self-Walbrick/The Hub@TTU

Dean Perlmutter said he hopes the college will someday have enough certificates to fit every student’s interests. The faculty has discussed other certificates—such as in science/health or in political communication. Tthere will likely be five or six certificates offered three or four years down the road, he said.

“I don’t want to have 20 certificates because then it just gets confusing, but in those bigger areas, like sports, it just makes sense,” Perlmutter said.

Students interested in the new certificate programs can email Todd Chambers, Director of Advising Julia Heard Witt, or any advisor or department chair.