Kennesaw State University Athletics

TAKE FLIGHT!
Being located in the Metro Atlanta area provides a great opportunity for student-athletes to get connected with the many different career options that are here. The FlightPlan is our map to help student-athletes find and identify their vocation and passion. Our goal is to:

PREPARE - Students by assisting them to identify their career path and identify personal and academic strengths

CONNECT - Student-athletes with a "Career Coach" who will help the student-athlete learn more about a profession and an opportunity to discuss career paths.

APPLY - Your knowledge of the steps and process toward career development by sharing your own career experience. Be willing to support your student-athlete by assisting the student with how to develop a job network, interview tips, career mobility and realistic wage expectations.

WHAT DO YOU GAIN? A student-athlete who brings a unique set of skills to the workplace and often make great employees and personal satisfaction of helping a student-athlete take the skills they've learned and continue their success after their college years have ended. Some skills that come with being an athlete are:
 

• - Coachable and willingness to work hard
• - Time management skills
• - Self-motivated and competitive
• - Understand the value of teamwork
• - Strong discipline and work ethic
• - Confidence in leadership skills

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOVLED?

We are looking for professionals to help us PREPARE, CONNECT and APPLY these skills for our student-athletes. By providing your contact information, our Student-Athlete Success Services staff will then have resources to provide to our student-athletes. You can specify what you would be interested in participating in:

CAREER COACH - this would entail making your contact information available for a student-athlete to contact you and talk about your career experience and career field.

PROVIDING INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES - By providing us with your information and expectations of any internship opportunities, we will make this information available to our student-athletes. Many internships are required for academic credit and some additional communication may be necessary with a specific department.

PART-TIME/ SHORT TERM JOB OPPORTUNITIES - student-athletes have very busy schedules, but they are allowed to work. Often student-athletes are looking for short term or variable hour jobs or summer employment. If you have these opportunities available, we will pass this information on to our student-athletes!

Frequently Asked Questions


What does it mean to be a career coach? How much time will this take?

Agreeing to be a career coach would initially entail being available to discuss your career field with a student-athlete. This may be a freshmen trying to determine what to major in and what the career options may look like, or it could be a Jr. or Sr. who is more interested in your specific business and advice on how to get exposed to opportunities that are currently available. This would in most cases be a scheduled phone interview for 20-30 minutes, but could possibly include some follow up based on the nature of the conversation with that particular student. If you are willing to be a career coach, please indicate if you would only want to talk with one student or more.

Please note that in this process the interests and career focus of students will determine the demand for career coaches, and this may mean that not everyone who volunteers will be selected as a career coach.

How long of a commitment will this be?
We do ask that you be available for an academic year, and if you choose to remain in our database as a resource, we will simply keep your contact information. At the end of each year we will ask if you would like to continue to be included in our list of contacts for student-athletes.

What do I do if no one contacts me?
It is possible that we will not have a match of your skill set with a student-athletes career interest. This can change year to year, but there is nothing you need to do except elect to stay on our contact list each year.

Can I choose what sport or athlete I want to work with?
The purpose of this program is to match up a student-athlete's career interest with a person in that career field. Therefore, it is not possible to connect only certain sports or teams with individuals.

What does an internship entail?
Many of our majors on campus require or have an optional internship, and these are often dictated by course prerequisites. For an internship to provide academic credit, in most cases this will require communication with the internship coordinator in that college and providing the information for that process to take place. Typically a 3 hour course credit is equal to 150 internship hours. It is recommended that an academic internship is 10 per week.

When is the best time for a student-athlete to do an internship?
This will depend on their sport, and may also depend on their course curriculum. If a student requires an internship, it will likely be dictated by their academic curriculum as to when they will complete this. Because of time demands, internship are typically best for student-athletes in the summer months.

Can student-athletes be paid for an internship?
Yes, student-athletes can earn the same amount that would be paid to any other person for an internship. It is an extra benefit to give them more than what other students can earn. The majority of internships provided for college credit are paid opportunities and typically attract the best students, but it is not requirement for these to be paid positions.

You ask about Temporary or Part time work opportunities - why?
Student-athletes have many commitments on their time, but they often look for ways to make money to help pay for everyday expenses. Part-time or temporary jobs that have nontraditional hours or variable work hours are often great opportunities to work around a student-athletes schedule. This might be a weekend landscaping job or data entry that can be done during their down time or holiday breaks. It is
important to note that any paid opportunities for student-athletes must be in accordance with what any other person would earn so that no NCAA extra benefit violations occur.

What else is an extra benefit?
An extra benefit is an award given in recognition of a student's participation or performance in intercollegiate athletics to the athlete, friend, or family member. It represents something that is given beyond what would normally be awarded to an individual. An example would be paying a student-athlete a higher rate of pay than other employees doing the same job.

GET CONNECTED! Take the Flight Plan's survey for more info by CLICKING HERE!