Raider Athletics Honored for Student-Athlete Development

(Courtesy of Wright State Athletic Communications) The Wright State University department of athletics was recently recognized by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics for its annual Student-Athlete Career Fair, winning the "Annual N4A Model Practice Award".

The Student-Athlete Career Fair was developed and introduced in 2015-2016 as a Life Skills Program event that provides junior and senior student-athletes the opportunity to refine their career development skills and network with potential employers. Student-athletes' schedules are so hectic, so they are often not available to attend campus wide career fairs.

Special Assistant to the Athletics Director and Life Skills leader Maigan Larsen nominated the program and presented via Skype to the national convention in Orlando over the weekend.

“We were thrilled to learn that Wright State Athletics had won the N4A Model Practice Award in Student-Athlete Development Programming for our Student-Athlete Career Fair," Larsen said.  "We are striving to become nationally recognized for transforming the lives of our student-athletes, so this is a great honor to receive such an award.”

“Because we take the personal development of our student-athletes so seriously, we put a lot of time and effort into building a successful and effective Life Skills Program for our student-athletes.  Our Life Skills Program provides our student-athletes with information and experiences in regard to personal development, social responsibility development, and career development.  We take great pride in being recognized by N4A for our dedication to the career development of our student-athletes.”

Time challenges are very common for student-athletes at all universities and student-athletes often cannot attend university events offered to the general student body because of their schedules. With purposeful Life Skills Programming, athletics departments can make sure that they provide their student-athletes with another time option to take part in necessary career development.

At Wright State, the creation of the Student-Athlete Career Fair created an opportunity for student-athletes to further develop their career plans, meet with career counselors one-on-one, experience virtual and in-person interviews, and network with potential employers. This event provided the opportunity for student-athletes to be active and stay up-to-date with their career development and mapping.

The N4A Model Practice Award is an award given annually to the university that displays best practices in their academic and/or student-athlete development programming for student-athletes.  It is rated for Innovativeness and use of creativity, recognizable, effective and measurable results and applicability/replicability of the best practice.  Wright State athletics was honored with a recognition plaque and a $500 honorarium.