By Alison Quandt
Boston College
Alison Quandt is the Assistant Athletic Director - Student-Athlete Development at Boston College. The program provides student-athletes personal and professional development opportunities in addition to their academic and athletic pursuits. Prior to her role with the athletic department, Alison spent three years in risk management at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Boston. She is a 2006 graduate of Boston College with a degree in Economics and was the captain of the women’s ice hockey team. Alison continues to work with USA Hockey as a goaltending consultant. She completed her MBA from BC's Carroll School of Management in 2011.
Fall at Boston College means the students are back, fall sports are underway and a crisp air moves in that helps turn our beautiful campus into a postcard worthy New England landscape.
Fall is also the beginning of campus recruiting for the many employers who visit campus to engage with our students on the fruitful opportunities that exist in the real world, beyond the confines of the Heights. I had the opportunity to meet with a group of recruiters who were on campus for an event with the Career Center. One in particular, upon hearing my role in the athletic department, was eager to share a bit of his afternoon as he took a walk across campus and had navigated himself through the football stadium while practice was underway.
He was an alum who had traveled quite a distance to visit with us that evening so he slowed his pace as he approached a Boston College police officer who was observing practice alongside a relative giant, wearing a plastic boot with crutches tucked under each arm. The conversation the alum overheard began with the officer asking the young man, injured in the previous weeks’ game, what he was going to do after graduation. The young man, a 5th year student, responded with confidence that he would play in the NFL. The officer followed up quickly “Then what?” “Probably go back to school and do something with computers” the student responded. The alum, a history major now working as an information technology director, broke stride as he heard the response. He doubled back to the pair standing just outside the end zone as coaches were imploring the student-athletes on the field to play with more fire and pace.
He introduced himself and mentioned his professional background in IT and that if football did not work out, that the young man would not necessarily need to go back to school in order to pursue his passion with computers. They exchanged information and a networking connection was launched.
While this interaction does not happen every day, there are several takeaways from this scenario we can keep in mind as we move forward.
1. The spotlight shines, but it also burns.
As student-athletes, you are often the most recognizable faces on campus. If you aren’t recognized by face, the gear you are wearing will make you more easily identifiable. You NEVER know who is watching, listening, or in some cases recording you. In this instance, it was a positive interaction and ended with a smile and a handshake, but that isn’t always the case. Being a student-athlete is a privilege and with it comes the expectation of carrying yourself in such a way that reflects on you, your family, your program, and the university you represent, in a positive manner.
2. Never underestimate the power of connections.
The institutions you attend or hope to attend in the future have been around for hundreds of years - literally hundreds. I’ve heard stories of Boston College alumni all over the world running into fellow alumni in the obscurest of places – a ferry dock in Shanghai, a bus stop in San Francisco, or a museum in Paris. A piece of BC gear is all it takes for two people with a shared experience to strike up a conversation that lasts an hour and even turns into two families sharing gelato in a piazza in Rome. Each campus across the country has a robust alumni affairs office that is charged with maintaining connections with its alumni across the world to keep them engaged in the life of campus and the current students. Alumni often jump at the chance to speak with current students, whether formally or informally. Your student-athlete development/life skills team, program of study or the campus career center likely maintains a database of alumni in your field of study and can connect you with folks in industries that you hope to work in one day. Don’t be bashful! These resources are there for YOU!
3. You don’t know what you don’t know
You learn a lot in your four, sometimes five years on campus. Opportunities to learn and get better are plentiful and reach far beyond the walls of your microeconomic theory course. The student-athlete in the story above was not being short-sighted in his thoughts on what to pursue professionally after football, he just did not know what was out there. Ask questions, be curious, get outside your comfort zone. You are in a place in your life where you are likely revered on campus and people are chomping at the bit to talk with you; use those opportunities to learn about others, what they do, where they live, what they enjoy about their work. You’ll never know until you ask.
You are the only one in charge of where you are going. Take ownership of your experience and take advantage of all the resources that are around you. Once you graduate and the lights on your football career dim, many of the resources that were once at your fingertips are now professional services that turn out to be quite expensive in the real world.