Life in the Lab: Kelcey Rogiers-Jensen

Kelcey Rogiers-Jensen

Kelcey Rogiers-Jensen was a star women's basketball player at GSU from 2003 to 2007 and later played professionally in Sweden. Now, as a student in professor Brenda Pitts' sports marketing research class, she getting an up-close look at the behind-the-scenes work that it takes to make events happen, using the Georgia Dome as a "living classroom."

As told to Jeremy Craig

In the program, you go through every course you can think of - law, marketing, revenue, facilities - you name it. It gives you a wide range under the umbrella of what it might take if you want to be an agent, run a recreation center, run a major venue or become an athletic director.

The experience at the Georgia Dome has been great. We broke up into teams of six to eight students and we worked at one event, such as the battle of the bands, supercross and motorcross. My personal project was the supercross. We set up tables and collected market research data for the general manager and the vice president of the Georgia World Congress Center.

You get to feel like you're making an impact on the community, as these events bring in a lot of revenue to our city. It's important to examine demographics and to see where attendees are coming from to know how to market events better. It gives you a different perspective. When you're out on the court or the field, you don't get to see the behind the scenes of what's going on, the budget, the set-up and how to run the events.