Butler Institute for Sports and Entertainment partners with SKYLAKE Adventures. Photo courtesy of Butler University.
LAUREN FISCHER | ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER | lrfischer@butler.edu
Butler students have the opportunity to be involved in the development of SKYLAKE Adventures — an adventure park that will open this summer — through its new partnership with Butler Institute for Sports and Entertainment (BISE).
BISE is a student organization that launched last summer, providing students in any field with hands-on experience in the sports and entertainment industries.
Last semester, BISE worked with multiple sports organizations to send students to sporting events around Indianapolis, including the Big Ten Championship and the LIV Golf tournament. This new partnership highlights BISE’s other focus: entertainment.
In preparation for SKYLAKE’s opening on June 1, 2026, a small team of Butler students is helping the park with social media content, website development and video production. In the upcoming months, there will be opportunities in human resources, operations and risk management. BlueRoll Media, Butler’s video production organization, also has students visiting the development site to produce documentaries and other content to help raise capital for the brand.
Trevor Fox, a senior sports media and Spanish double major, is part of the current group and mentioned that a new team is being built.
“[SKYLAKE] started to want more and more help after they realized how well Butler students are prepared for experiences like [this partnership],” Fox said.
This partnership materialized when Sean Howard, Butler alumnus and co-owner of SKYLAKE, reached out after hearing about BISE. He expressed interest in having Butler students involved in the development of SKYLAKE.
Howard worked alongside Bob Schultz, faculty director of BISE, to make this idea a reality.
“Butler is getting these incredible hands-on, broader than semester-long opportunities to plug students into real work, make contacts and test their business acumen and communication skills from classes,” Schultz said. “It’s not just a one-and-done … This is a sustainable, multi-month engagement that transcends semester segments.”
Along with the many opportunities introduced, students are getting paid for the work they do.
This program is also interdisciplinary, drawing students from many areas, including communications, business, the arts and kinesiology.
Jackson Houldsworth, a junior finance and marketing double major, acknowledges that BISE benefits both students and employers through the strong connections it fosters.
“Future employers get experienced people coming in and doing work for them [who are] completely willing,” Houldsworth said. “Students want to do whatever they can to help, and the companies get good outputs.”
Schultz also noted that with Butler being associated with the brand, it will hopefully introduce further opportunities, and provide a place for team-building among students, sporting teams, faculty and locals.
The park will feature water obstacle courses on a manmade, sand-bottom lake, a snow tubing area and a high ropes course. The park will offer activities in all seasons, providing constant opportunities for students.
This partnership will continue to develop over the next semester and after the opening of SKYLAKE. BISE hopes to attract students studying data analytics and health sciences in the future, continuously expanding its reach.
“The university is paying attention to this framework that could open doors and provide a differentiating factor for a Butler education,” Schultz said. “That’s what [BISE is] all about: student opportunities to engage.”
