Field Hockey Junior One of Nearly 300 Attending Career Forum at National Office
(Hamilton, NY – June 2013) Colgate’s Eliana Brown says the NCAA Career in Sports Forum she attended earlier this month definitely worked to keep her focused on a possible future path toward athletics.
The Colgate field hockey junior was invited to Indianapolis for the June 8-11 conference hosted by the governing body for collegiate athletics.
“Yes, it was very interesting and a great experience,” Brown said. “It was great talking to different people working in athletics and learning about what they do and how they got where they are.
“The most interesting part for me was, since I’m not totally sure what I want to do, just getting that reassurance that that’s OK; that I don’t have to make up my mind just yet. But the presenters definitely were very passionate about their careers. And there’s not one clear path to any particular career.”
Nearly 300 student-athletes, male and female, from all three NCAA divisions attended the seminar. The forum focused on assisting student-athletes with making a successful transition from competition to their future professions in intercollegiate athletics.
Leading Scorer Last Year
Brown already is becoming a leader on the field for the Raiders. She paced the 2012 Patriot League Tournament semifinalists in scoring with both eight goals and 16 points. The Annandale, Va., native has played in all 34 games of her collegiate career, with 17 consecutive starts in 2012 and one during her first season at Colgate.
“Right now, I’m interested in communications,” Brown said of her early postgraduate plans. “I’m working at a radio station this summer, but I’m not sure yet if I want to work in collegiate athletics or something else.
“But I’m definitely interested in communications.”
The NCAA sports forum meetings took place at the Indianapolis Marriott and included a visit to the NCAA Hall of Champions, located at the national office complex.
The Career in Sports Forum brought career leaders together to discuss their professional career paths and to enlighten student-athletes on career choices and future decisions they’ll need to consider. Some of the session topics included:
— Discussion on skills sets needed to perform at the highest level
— Nontraditional careers in athletics
— Best practices in athletics administration
— Personal and professional branding
— Resources for applying to graduate school
— Human resource hiring processes
There also were team sessions where the student-athletes were put in smaller groups to discuss key issues and take leadership roles among their peers. The student-athletes engaged in dialogue with senior administrators from the NCAA national office and had a formal networking dinner with NCAA administrators.
A Familiar Path
Brown was nominated for the conference by Colgate Director of Athletics Victoria M. Chun, and Senior Associate Athletics Director/SWA Ann-Marie Guglieri. Chun began her administrative career as an NCAA intern in the late 1990s, and she sees many of the qualities necessary for a successful athletics professional in Brown.
“Eliana was a great candidate to participate in the NCAA Career in Sports Forum,” Chun said. “She is a bright young woman who is working on developing her skills as a leader both on and off the field hockey field. She will be a great addition to the field of intercollegiate athletics following graduation.”
Brown knows she’s in a special place at Colgate, one that fits her plans for a well thought-out game plan when it comes to her life after field hockey. This month’s visit to the NCAA Career in Sports Forum was simply another benefit of her decision to play for head coach Cathy Foto and the Raiders.
“I’m very lucky because I have great people to talk to at Colgate,” she said. “The NCAA forum was a great place to be able to network and ask all different types of questions. I definitely could see myself working for the NCAA.”