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Jaylen McDuffie

Senior Seminar

Dr. Monsour

9-25-22

Looking Ahead to My Vocational Calling Essay

The vocation I am pursuing is sports management, and this has been the degree I wanted

to be in since I started high school. I found such a huge interest in this vocation because growing

up it was always about sports and school. Once I did more research on what sports management

is I seen how many doors I can decide to go through by choosing this path and that caught my

eye. I could become a sports agent for athletes. I could work for a sports related company such as

a professional sports team or even a shoe company like Nike that must deal with these

professional organizations. The route that interested me the most was working for a sports

related company such as a professional sports team or even a shoe company like Nike that must

deal with these professional organization. With this route there are still numerous routes.

Working for a sports organization I can be a part of their player management, media

management, facilities management, and all those have low tier jobs with the potential to become

higher authority. While working for a company like Nike would have routes like store

management, marketing management, NCAA management, Professional team management, etc.

I first was introduced to the management side of sports through an uncle of mine who was a

player representative for Nike, and now is the representative for NCAA operations. With one of

these jobs, I hope to interact with as many people and leave a lasting impression on them, along

with spreading my knowledge that I’ve learned with my liberal arts education at Seton Hill.
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“It is particularly painful when it especially affects young people, who after appropriate

cultural, technical and professional preparation fail to find work, and see their sincere wish to

work and their readiness to take on their own responsibility for the economic and social

development of the community sadly frustrated.” (Laborem exercens (14 September 1981): John

Paul II 1981). This talks about the unemployment issue within the world today. My vocation has

a lot to deal with the social justice in America because a huge percentage of athletes in America

are now minorities. Working with athletes to better their life or even working for a company that

helps these athletes better their everyday life helps the common good. My contribution to the

society would be “Nike employees and store athletes from across the U.S. to directly impact the

local communities where they live and work by awarding grants to organizations that give youth

early, positive experiences in sport and physical activity and strengthen communities…Nike

gives back locally to strengthen communities and get kids moving through the Nike Community

Impact Fund. Nike Gives Back Locally to Strengthen Communities and Get Kids Moving

Through the Nike Community Impact Fund | Business Wire. (2016, December 1). (Nike gives

back locally to strengthen communities and get kids moving through the Nike Community Impact

Fund 2016). My responsibilities would be to interact with costumers, and other leaders with

great service as well as with great knowledge of the product or the job that need to be completed.

Sports help teach dignity and respect. Respecting the effort and work ethic of getting better at

something you love every day. Having had that experience with teammates in sports, athletes

learn to recognize those qualities in people as adults, making them more likely to embrace

equality and respect people equally based on values and actions instead of social stereotypes.

In the video it says, “when you see something that is not right you must do something,

democracy is not a state, it’s an act and each generation must do their part to help build what we
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call the beloved community” (Lewis). This quote really stood out to me because if we all pay

attention to the world around us and take the initiative to standing up for what’s right, the world

will become a much better place. I feel like my intended profession addresses social justice

issues, inequality, etc. because of the different things they do to support those cause. Nike

committed to a four-year, $40 million commitment in support of social justice, education, and

addressing racial inequality in America. I think having a conversation with John Lewis and Pope

John Paul II would be like communicating the same viewpoint just from different perspectives.

Both talked about supporting social injustice and coming in solidarity to make these causes more

know as well as helping prevent these injustices from getting worse.

When it comes to the Amazon OP-ED article, I have mixed emotions. I can see it from

both sides, if the workers make a union and start to control their pay, benefits, and things that

affect the total money spent by the owners of Amazon that can upset them. Which would upset

anyone, because they lose all power and business integrity to pay people what they want to

within the law. As a worker having a union would benefit because you can control what you

think your worth is. If you feel like you’re being worked for too long you can control how many

breaks you get for every certain number of hours worked. A way to fix these issues to the article

are ideas such as creating the union, but they are having a certain percentage of power in

decision. No company can succeed if one portion of the company has 100% control over all

operations of thing find a good balance in the decisions made and see the viewpoint of how it

affects both parties then come to an agreement that both sides agree to and if the working party

doesn’t agree then they have the right to stop working there in protest to the company.

I hope that with getting a job with Nike I can work my way up to a manager position

where I can start to have say in decisions. I think it was a great decision to put money into
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helping social injustice, and racial injustice issues. With Nike working with athletes directly and

indirectly, and more and more of athletes in the world being a minority showing your support for

a cause that directly impact them is a great message to spread to them along with to other big

companies saying that no matter how you are or how successful you are everyone should be

treated with dignity and respect and if everyone does there job at speaking out t all the wrong

doing than the world can become a better place.

Work Cited
Laborem exercens (14 September 1981): John Paul II. Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981) |
John Paul II. (1981, September 14). Retrieved September 25, 2022, from
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-
ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html

Nike gives back locally to strengthen communities and get kids moving through the Nike
Community Impact Fund. Nike Gives Back Locally to Strengthen Communities and Get
Kids Moving Through the Nike Community Impact Fund | Business Wire. (2016,
December 1). Retrieved September 25, 2022, from
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161201006001/en/Nike-Gives-Back-
Locally-to-Strengthen-Communities-and-Get-Kids-Moving-Through-the-Nike-
Community-Impact-Fund#:~:text=The%20NCIF%20is%20an%20innovative,sport
%20and%20physical%20activity%20and 

Nike commits $40 million for social justice, racial equity. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2022,
from https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/nike-commits-40-million-for-social-
justice-racial-equity

YouTube. (2020). YouTube. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2DSkAys-8.