Career Athletes Assists Evangel Student-Athletes 
Evangel student-athletes gain valuable career advice and internship opportunities

Springfield, MO - The Evangel University Career Center and Athletic Department recently hosted a Career Athletes Dinner and Reception for student-athletes on Wednesday, March 23rd.

Over 250 student-athletes, coaches, and staff were in attendance as Career Athletes Vice President of Training and Development, DJ Washington spoke about "Developing your Career Game Plan" and "How to Sell Yourself as an Athlete."  In addition to the seminars on campus, Evangel has agreed to a multiyear partnership with Career Athletes in which student-athletes have access to an online network that provides the ability to create professional connections with athletes and companies across the country.

"Career Athletes provides the best presentation I have ever heard on student-athlete career preparation...specifically targeting the personal and professional skills gained during the college athletic experience," said Scott Kirby, Recruitment Program Coordinator at Evangel. 

Based out of Olathe, Kansas, Career Athletes is the nation's largest and oldest online organization linking together current and former student-athletes, business organizations, and athletic departments.  For the past 12 years, Career Athletes has conducted over 900 campus training and development seminars in front of more than 260,000 student-athletes. 

"Their website provides a personalized platform for Evangel University, which will allow our student-athletes to network with Evangel athletic alumni, as well as athletes from other universities across the country.  In addition they can get resume help, graduate school guidance, and search through job opportunities posted by hiring managers and recruiters from companies who appreciate the work ethic of college athletes.  I am very excited about partnering with Career Athletes for years to come in order to better prepare our student athletes for life after college," said Kirby.

"The career education seminars at Evangel University were a great success. By the overwhelming turnout of sponsors, staff, coaches and student-athletes from every sport, it is clear that Evangel is committed to the career development of their student-athletes," said Washington, who is former basketball player at Union College in Kentucky.   

The Career Athletes visit was made possible through the sponsorship of several business organizations in the Springfield, Missouri area.  Sponsors included: Best Buy, Collin Wray Real Estate Group, Professional Accounting, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Destiny Church, Enterprise, Marines, Classy Llama Studios and Northwestern Mutual. 

"I was extremely impressed with the entire presentation and detailed suggestions given to Evangel's current student-athletes from Career Athletes," said Enterprise Branch Manager Justin Harper. 

"As an alumnus of Evangel University and its baseball team, I was encouraged to see the type of mentorship today's student-athletes are receiving through programs such as this.  Enterprise feels privileged to be part of such a helpful and meaningful event through our sponsorship," explained Harper, who has signed up as mentor in the Evangel Career Athletes Network. 

The seminars for student-athletes are geared towards using a unique skill set they obtain while competing in college athletics and how to use and articulate these skills and traits at an interview or on a resume.  Topics covered in the seminar are: knowing your competition, identifying skills learned through athletic preparation and how to use these skills to your advantage after graduation, networking, preparation for an interview, and how to differentiate yourself from others.  All student-athletes received professional career preparation manuals to be used as a guide throughout the seminar and in days to come. 

Trevon Meyers, senior football student-athlete at Evangel explained, "Career Athletes has helped me combine the work put in on the football field into a professional resume - giving me a jump on starting my professional career." 

Student-athletes also have career education resources available 24 hours a day through the Career Resource Center in their account at careerathletes.com.  Members can also utilize the Virtual Career Coach to stay in touch with Career Athletes representatives at a later date.