Professional Development for College Athletics Program
SMU’s “Life After Ball” Program
Professional Development for College Athletics Program
SMU’s Life After Ball program (or LAB) is designed to help college student-athletes secure internships and jobs and to learn basic life skills as they transition out of athletic programs and into the professional world.
The program supports student-athletes in a number of ways, including alumni networking dinners, assistance securing internships, and a “Professional Development Series”.
The Opportunity
Looking to reimagine the professional development content and outsource the workshop delivery to a single partner, LAB approached Evan Burk to reinvent it’s existing workshops, consolidate the delivery of workshops, and align all workshop content into an energized curriculum suitable for the college athlete audience.
The Results
The resulting partnership allowed Evan to collaborate with program leaders to design and deliver a professional development curriculum specifically tailored to student-athletes to assist in their transition from sport to professional workplace.
The reimagined curriculum for LAB’s “Professional Development Series” consists of five workshops that help prepare Mustang student-athletes for life after graduation. The five workshops are: The Elevator Pitch, Networking 101, LinkedIn & Resumes, Taxes & Credit and Interview Prep.
Evan delivered these workshops to all athletes virtually in both the Fall and Spring semesters. Student-athletes attending the workshops have the ability to schedule one-on-one time with Evan to discuss any workshop topics, as well as conducting mock job interviews.
In 2023 after the first year of the partnership, 53 SMU student-athletes received summer internships through the Life After Ball program.
Industry
College Athletics
Services
Curriculum Design
Workshops
Coaching
Topics
Professional Development
Interview Prep
Lisa Rawlins | Associate A.D./Student-Athlete Success at SMU
“Evan's background as a coach, his experience at SMU and his expertise in career preparation make him the perfect fit to deliver high-caliber workshops that Mustang student-athletes will benefit from.”
Curriculum Design
To help define LAB’s professional development curriculum, Evan conducted a series of meetings with LAB leaders to strategize, brainstorm, and reimagine the topics, strategies, and content to present in workshops to student-athletes.
Evan leveraged these meetings and his research to outline a compelling curriculum and define a practical learning path to help athletes learn basic life skills vital for career success.
LAB’s “Professional Development Series” cover five topics:
The Elevator Pitch
Networking 101
LinkedIn & Resumes
Taxes & Credit
Interview Prep
This outline was brought to life through feedback from LAB leaders, along with one-page cheat sheets that were provided to each workshop attendee.
Workshops
Evan delivered these workshops to all athletes virtually in both the Fall and Spring semesters. Student-athletes attending the workshops have the ability to schedule one-on-one time with Evan to discuss any workshop topics, as well as conducting mock job interviews.
Coaching
Student-athletes attending the workshops have the ability to schedule one-on-one time with Evan on topics such as networking strategies, planning internship applications, and going through mock job interviews.
Since most college athletes have no experience interviewing for jobs or internships, SMU offered LAB attendees the opportunity to schedule mock interviews with Evan to practice their interview skills in a job interview scenario.
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