DRIVE for Success Career Industries Night a Success
2/1/2018 11:12:00 AM | General
The event featured 26 professionals mixing with nearly 100 Crimson Tide sophomore student-athletes
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Nearly 100 University of Alabama sophomore student-athletes gathered in the South Zone of Bryant-Denny Stadium Tuesday night to take part in the Crimson Tide's DRIVE (Dedication, Responsibility, Influence, Vision, and Excellence) for Success Career and Leadership Development program's Career Industry Night.
The event featured 26 professionals from different industries split into six panels representing a variety of career opportunities. Each professional within a panel represented a different opportunity within a particular field. For example, within the exercise science panel the professionals on hand included physical therapists, as well as strength & conditioning, nutrition and athletic training professionals.
One of the panelists was more than a little familiar to the student-athletes on hand. Bill Battle, a former Alabama football player, head coach at the University of Tennessee and Alabama's Director of Athletics for a four-year span that ended last winter, spent the majority of his professional career as the founder and chairman of the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), giving him a wide breadth of knowledge in the business of athletics.
"Tonight was a great opportunity for our student-athletes who are interested in a lot of different professions to find out what people actually do in those industries and get an insider look at where their interests lie," Battle said.
For the student-athletes, the opportunity to talk to professionals such a Battle provided invaluable insight.
"Tonight we had the opportunity to look at different fields that we are interested in and hear from professionals from those fields and getting different ideas about what we can do within those professions once we graduate," softball sophomore Elissa Brown said.
During the different panels, moderators presented questions to the panelists and facilitated the discussion.Â
"We got to hear several different viewpoints within the health field and they were great about answering questions and giving us advice," sophomore swimmer Kyle Maas said about the health sciences panel.
The underlying idea behind the event was for professionals to provide "real world" information about their industries and answer any questions any individuals may have regarding specifics about their fields.
"For me, I think the best advice was to start early in the application process as far as researching different opportunities as well as shadowing and volunteering goes, because it is such a competitive process," Maas, who is on the pre-med track, said.
Other panelists gave advice on how to pick their future profession.
"We were encouraged to go with what we're passionate about and what we love," Brown said. "I was interested in the wide-range of experience the panelist brought to the table and the different advice they had for us that came out of their real-world experiences."
The career industries event is another part of Alabama Athletics' DRIVE for Success Career and Leadership Development program. DRIVE for Success is an innovative and dynamic initiative now in its fourth year. Highlighted through the DRIVE acronym the program's values are Dedication, Responsibility, Influence, Vision, and Excellence. The mission is to actively support professional and leadership growth of current and former Crimson Tide student-athletes through practical education and comprehensive programming in preparation for success in life.
All the latest information on Alabama Athletics can be found via @UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook. You can follow Alabama's DRIVE for Success program on Twitter via @TideDrive.
