Editor's note: This is the ninth in a weeklong series of stories providing tips and forecasting the future for soon-to-be college graduates.
Ohio University does not provide extensive career-building help to student-athletes in preparation for graduation, but it is looking to expand the program as early as next year.
The athletic department has a few programs to help student-athletes with their career aspirations upon graduation. Incoming freshmen are required to take a one-hour course designed to ease the transition from high school to college. Individual sessions in personal development are also offered in the years before graduation, and speakers visit Athens a few times a year to talk with student-athletes.
In addition, there are career development seminars several times a year. There, alumni associated with the athletic department return for evening sessions. However, the initiative to attend these seminars is on the student-athlete, associate athletic director Jennifer Stiles said.
It's really good for networking because you've got probably 20 alumni who are specifically interested in student-athletes in those sessions
said Stiles, who is in charge of compliance and student services.
Though the athletic department has only a few programs to help Ohio student-athletes focus on their careers once they leave Athens, a program expansion plan is in the works.
We haven't done probably as much as we could Stiles said. What we're hoping to do is create a one-hour course that is similar to our freshman orientation course that we have now.
The course would be expanded to cover personal development and other career-planning topics for sophomores, juniors and seniors, Stiles said.
While helping student-athletes with job preparation is important to student services, it isn't the main focus, Stiles said.
We focus on eligibility and graduation; that's our ultimate goal Stiles said. Certainly career services on campus does a lot of things
so we can share a lot of resources. But it is important to our department.
One option that many student-athletes choose when they graduate is to return to Ohio athletics. This year there are three student-athletes from the class of '05 that work with coaching Bobcat teams.
However, there are a total of 14 Ohio athletes who graduated and are involved with coaching a Bobcat team. This number includes assistant coaches, graduate assistants and volunteer coaches.
After starting 61 games on the lacrosse field for the Bobcats, 2005 graduate Molly Wurdack now patrols the sidelines for Ohio as a volunteer assistant. She has been a valuable asset to the team, coach Allison Valentino said.
Though hiring an ex-Ohio athlete can be beneficial, it isn't always the most viable option for the athletic programs, track coach Clay Calkins said.
As a coach
I need to do what's best for the team
Calkins said. Sometimes that doesn't always mean hiring someone that was just a former athlete.
Wurdack, who is pursuing a master's degree, believes that Ohio could do more to help future graduates.
I think that unless the athletes get help through their specific college or something like that in finding a job
I think that athletes are pretty much out on their own
she said. I don't think it's necessarily the athletics department's job to find athletes jobs in the future
but I think providing them with classes they can take to really expand the opportunities when they graduate would be a really great idea.
While the expansion of career development programs would benefit the student-athletes, the biggest obstacle to implementation is staffing, Stiles said.
That's really the key element to being able to move forward with what we want to do for next year is having the man power
the people that can take that on
he said.
