EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern sophomore student-athletes kick-started their professional preparations last week, networking with alums across several industries through NU for Life's annual event geared toward second-year students.
Twenty-four professionals from seven categories of post-graduate life — healthcare, consulting, finance and real estate, marketing and communications, engineering, graduate school, and "still exploring" — relayed advice and fielded questions from the sophomores, who will be declaring their majors at the end of the quarter.
"It's an event to get the ball rolling," said JR Reimer, the president of NU For Life's Advisory Board and a junior pitcher for the Wildcats. "You really want sophomores to start thinking about the next step and what they're going to do going forward. So I think it's important that we have events like these to get them involved."
Most of the industry experts were former student-athletes at Northwestern, furthering the potential for connection. Returnees to campus included baseball alum Jack Quigley (current strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte Consulting), cross country alumna Rachel Weathered (current graduate student at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago), and lacrosse alumna Morgan Lathrop (currently the senior director, rights and partnerships at United Entertainment Group).
The event was valuable in multiple ways for the underclassmen. It allowed the chance for undecided students to hear about perhaps unconsidered possibilities and it gave all student-athletes the opportunity to network with professional insiders and to understand the different functions that exist with each industry.
This event fits in with the structured, four-year program established for Wildcat student-athletes, as the sophomore year is set aside for exploration. Soon, these sophomore student-athletes will be focused on immersion and then transition to a full-time job or graduate school.
In all, getting sophomore student-athletes on the path to post-graduate success is consistent with Northwestern's mission to field elite teams in the Big Ten and foster high-level academic and extracurricular performance.
In the most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSA) released by the NCAA, Northwestern led the Big Ten by seven percentage points and ranked among the best scores in the nation with a 97 percent clip. In fact, the Wildcats have scored 96 percent or higher overall in each of the twelve years GSR has been released and last year, nine of NU's 19 varsity sports achieved perfect 100 percent GSRs.
On the field, the men's basketball team just completed its first trip to the NCAA Tournament and notched its premiere victory on a national stage against Vanderbilt, the football team notched a win over ranked Pittsburgh in the Pinstripe Bowl, and women's soccer is coming off of a trip to the Round of Sixteen in their NCAA Tournament.
NU for Life is the Northwestern athletic department's career enhancement and employer engagement department, which allows student-athletes the resources to excel professionally after their athletic careers. Another event hosted by NU for Life is the Wildcat Professional Excellence Program (WPEP), which gives junior student-athletes a similar chance to network, and features the announcement of the annual Kabiller Award, which offers standout student-athletes a $5,000 grant for use in professional development.
Twenty-four professionals from seven categories of post-graduate life — healthcare, consulting, finance and real estate, marketing and communications, engineering, graduate school, and "still exploring" — relayed advice and fielded questions from the sophomores, who will be declaring their majors at the end of the quarter.
"It's an event to get the ball rolling," said JR Reimer, the president of NU For Life's Advisory Board and a junior pitcher for the Wildcats. "You really want sophomores to start thinking about the next step and what they're going to do going forward. So I think it's important that we have events like these to get them involved."
Most of the industry experts were former student-athletes at Northwestern, furthering the potential for connection. Returnees to campus included baseball alum Jack Quigley (current strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte Consulting), cross country alumna Rachel Weathered (current graduate student at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago), and lacrosse alumna Morgan Lathrop (currently the senior director, rights and partnerships at United Entertainment Group).The event was valuable in multiple ways for the underclassmen. It allowed the chance for undecided students to hear about perhaps unconsidered possibilities and it gave all student-athletes the opportunity to network with professional insiders and to understand the different functions that exist with each industry.
This event fits in with the structured, four-year program established for Wildcat student-athletes, as the sophomore year is set aside for exploration. Soon, these sophomore student-athletes will be focused on immersion and then transition to a full-time job or graduate school.In all, getting sophomore student-athletes on the path to post-graduate success is consistent with Northwestern's mission to field elite teams in the Big Ten and foster high-level academic and extracurricular performance.
In the most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSA) released by the NCAA, Northwestern led the Big Ten by seven percentage points and ranked among the best scores in the nation with a 97 percent clip. In fact, the Wildcats have scored 96 percent or higher overall in each of the twelve years GSR has been released and last year, nine of NU's 19 varsity sports achieved perfect 100 percent GSRs.
On the field, the men's basketball team just completed its first trip to the NCAA Tournament and notched its premiere victory on a national stage against Vanderbilt, the football team notched a win over ranked Pittsburgh in the Pinstripe Bowl, and women's soccer is coming off of a trip to the Round of Sixteen in their NCAA Tournament.
NU for Life is the Northwestern athletic department's career enhancement and employer engagement department, which allows student-athletes the resources to excel professionally after their athletic careers. Another event hosted by NU for Life is the Wildcat Professional Excellence Program (WPEP), which gives junior student-athletes a similar chance to network, and features the announcement of the annual Kabiller Award, which offers standout student-athletes a $5,000 grant for use in professional development.