Winston-Salem State University Rams & Career Athletes Connect Athletes with Mentors and Business Organizations
Kansas City based company provides career and networking opportunities to student-athletes
Olathe, Kan. - (February 2, 2012) The Winston-Salem State University Athletic Department, WSSU Career Development Services and Career Athletes have recently agreed to a partnership providing student-athletes a truly unique resource for career development and professional networking.
Winston-Salem State University is the first school from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) to partner with Career Athletes.
"Career Athletes will serve as an awesome tool that will foster our student-athletes road to success and future career objectives," says Yolanda Childs, Winston-Salem State University Athletics Academic Advisor. "With us becoming a member of the Career Athletes Career Network, it will help our athletic department deliver on our commitment to Career Development of our student-athletes," says Childs.
"Career Development Services is excited to partner with Athletics and is committed to building relationships with student-athletes that assists in defining professional goals, obtaining career-related experiences, and creating and implementing job search strategies or plans for graduate and professional school," says LaMonica Sloan, Director of WSSU's Career Development Services. "Every employer is looking for a specific set of skills from job-seekers that match the skills necessary to perform a particular job. Student-athletes develop unique, transferable skills throughout their undergraduate experience that make them highly marketable and valuable assets in today's work place. Career Athletes is a valuable resource that will provide opportunities for students and alumni to make successful and purposeful career-related decisions at all stages of their career development," says Sloan.
"It's obvious that the administration at Winston-Salem State University cares about its student-athletes beyond their playing days and graduation, and we are excited to be partnered with such an outstanding institution," said Chris Smith CEO and President of Career Athletes. "Due to the demanding nature of collegiate athletics, these athletes face a unique set of challenges regarding career development not typically experienced by the general student-body. The current economic environment will provide even greater challenges for today's student-athletes to overcome, making career development more important than ever."
In the 2010-11 academic year, 92 WSSU student-athletes earned a 3.0 or better and 11 student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 GPA in the spring of 2011. The current graduation rate of WSSU student-athletes is 45%, and the current retention rate is 92%.
About Career Athletes, LLC:
Career Athletes is the leading provider of a wide range of dedicated career development services and software within collegiate athletics. Since the inception of our roots back in 1998-to-date, athletes in every sport, from over 1,400 individual colleges and universities nationwide, have utilized Career Athletes as a valuable tool in their transition from athletics to the workplace.
Career Athletes possesses the largest member based community of current/alumni student-athletes, representing a growing legion of athletes, athletic departments and hundreds of national, regional and local employers. Today, our on-campus training and development seminars to student-athletes are the most relied upon in the nation, with over 1,000 seminars conducted and over 275,000 student-athletes educated on-campus within college athletic departments at the NCAA, NAIA and Junior Colleges level.
