BATON ROUGE – The LSU Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes hosted its annual Career Symposium for junior and senior student-athletes Tuesday evening inside the Legends Club of Maravich Center.
CCACSA Executive Director and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Kenneth Miles kicked off the event and delivered a welcoming address highlighted by the importance of networking for opportunities after college.
“One of our four goals is preparing all of our student-athletes professionally and from a career standpoint,” Miles said. “This is just one of the marquee events that capitalizes on all of the things that we put in place prior to. I think it’s imperative for an institution of higher education to prepare students not only during their times while they are here, but more than that for their time once they’ve left this building. Our motto is, ‘Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.’ The only way that we believe they can do that is if they are equipped to do so.”
The student-athletes were then given a 30-minute networking period to interact with employers and job recruiters from 25 local, regional and national companies.
“It’s great to be able to be in this environment, to be able to get our foot in the door and have legitimate conversations with people about things that we are really interested in for after we graduate,” gymnast Rheagan Courville said. “I can’t think of a better program of dedicated people that really have our best interests and that work around the clock to make sure that when we get out of here that we are prepared for the real world.”
Former All-SEC LSU men’s basketball player, current radio analyst and businessman Ricky Blanton took the podium as the symposium’s keynote speaker. He touched on topics such as resume boosters and interview etiquette. Blanton also hinted at the importance of human resources, the heightened marketability of a student-athlete and enhancing the worldwide brand of LSU.
“In my particular case of being a business owner, I can share the reality of what they are going to face when they go to get a job with a company,” Blanton said. “An athlete is really attractive to a lot of employers because they’ve shown the commitment level. When you get into the workforce, a commitment to your job is very important. The LSU brand in my opinion is worldwide. The brand reaches far and wide, and I like to share that with them always so they always keep that in the back of their mind when the opportunity comes up for a position.”
Following Blanton’s speech, the student-athletes were given another 30-minute period to socialize and network before the event finished.