Gordon Sends Team to Equity in Sport Leadership Conference

For a handful of Gordon College students, a trip to Boston will likely turn out to be a meaningful step in their upcoming careers. Noah Fournier ’29, Jake Scruton ’27, Sue Wanjau ’27, and Caoimhe Wernsing ’26 formed Gordon's first ever delegation to attend the Equity in Sport Leadership Conference at UMass Boston.

This annual gathering brings together students, industry leaders, and community stakeholders to discuss the state of the field and share ideas on how to cultivate positive social change within, and beyond, the world of sport. This year, the conference was titled “Changing the Game to Level the Playing Field.” 

The foursome was brought together by Dr. David Hughes, associate professor in the practice of sports management at Gordon, who knew the students from his courses and tapped them to compete in the conference’s case study competition. 

This year, the case study focused on the National Women’s Soccer League’s new Boston Legacy Football Club, and the Gordon contingent was determined to put up a solid showing. “My team spent significant time preparing,” recalls Fournier. “We carefully structured and timed each portion of our presentation to ensure it fit within the 12-minute limit. If it didn’t, we refined and practiced until it did.” 

Fournier, Scruton, Wernsing, and Wanjau placed third in the case study competition.

Gordon finished a respectable third, but this was an experience where winning truly was not everything. As Wernsing points out, “it was especially interesting to see how other schools approached the same case study and transformed it into their own unique presentations.” And for Wanjau, simply “competing in front of judges from Boston Legacy FC helped me gauge where I stand relative to industry expectations.” 

But as useful as the Gordon team found the experience of the case study competition, they may have gained even more through the day’s networking efforts. Over a dozen sport organizations from the Greater Boston area were on hand for the conference’s “Career Fair Professional Networking” event, including Kraft Sports and Entertainment, Positive Coaching Alliance, Win Win, Boston College Sport Administration Graduate Program, and others. 

All four Gordon students were, quite simply, most impressed by Elle Duncan, the featured speaker who currently serves as sports anchor for Netflix and previously worked at both ESPN and NESN. “It was incredible to be able to listen to her speak,” says Scruton. “I grew up watching her on ESPN, and it was so amazing to hear her story and, afterwards, be able to connect individually and share some sport stories.” Wanjau was similarly moved by the experience of meeting Duncan in person, calling it a “unique opportunity to speak with an influential voice in the sports industry.”

Duncan made personal connections with the Gordon contingent, and the students deeply appreciated her. “She was incredibly kind and supportive,” says Wernsing, “offering advice and encouragement about being a woman in sports and taking the time to listen and help in any way she could.”

Although Fournier, Scruton, Wanjau, and Wernsing are pursuing a range of majors, their love of sport brought them together for this event, and they all firmly believe it will have a positive impact on their careers. For Fournier, attending this event with Gordon “offered a real-world glimpse into working alongside professionals in the sports industry. Continuing to gain hands-on experience, build relationships, and stay involved in opportunities like this will be key in advancing my career.” Scruton agrees, adding that the conference “gave me more motivation to follow my passion for sport and do my best to improve it.” 

In one way or another, the students were all impressed with the notion that the sports industry can have a positive effect on the world that goes far beyond providing entertainment—and the future careers of this Gordon foursome might just prove it.