St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Career Night Another Success
4/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | General
April 11, 2008
QUEENS, N.Y. - Student-athletes were invited to bring resumes, enjoy dinner and spend time networking with professionals from their prospective fields Thursday evening as part of the annual Student-Athlete Career Night. The event continues a history of more than 20 years, having begun under Jack Kaiser, Athletic Director Emeritus, and through the efforts of Mary Pat Beirne, the current Assistant Director of Athletic Development. The event held at the UC Storm Center was sponsored by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network of Long Island.
The evening began with an introduction by Robert Mangione, Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Allied Health, and Director of Athletics Chris Monasch.
"This gives the student-athletes, who work so hard on the playing field as well as in the classroom, an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do in the world outside of sports," said Mangione, St. John's Faculty-Athletic Representative. "It is also great for St. John's University to show off our very best."
There were over fifty facilitators from various businesses invited to share their stories with the student-athletes, including several Red Storm alumni.
Georgios Spanos, a 2007 men's soccer alumnus, was linked to his current position through last spring's career night and was excited to return as a recruiter for Empire Surgical.
"This is a life-changing opportunity for these student-athletes," added Spanos. "It gears you toward your future."
The 2008 Career Night was organized by Michelle Kyriakides, who is in her fourth year as Assistant Director of the Career Center.
"Networking is the No. 1 way that students across the country find jobs," said Kyriakides. "Career night provides our student-athletes with a safe environment to network with people who come from the same experience they have. A lot of them are former student-athletes themselves. The recruiters that are looking for athletes are doing so because they know what an athlete brings to the table: communication, teamwork and leadership that they develop on the field of play. The recruiters that come to this event know that these students already have what they are looking for."
Following dinner, student-athletes were given the opportunity to converse with facilitators from their fields of interest and discuss potential employment or internship opportunities. They also learned how to adapt their transferable skills from athletics to a corporate environment. Several professionals from the areas of education, health, sports, entertainment, finance and marketing were in attendance to mix and mingle with the student-athletes.
The student-athletes were then able to go around the room in two roundtable discussions where they were introduced to different potential employers and were encouraged to return to tables they found interesting and pertained to their career goals.
Jeff Wengroff, an alumnus from the college of business administration in '73, was in attendance to represent HE2, where he is the Executive Vice President of Project Development. He is also actively involved in St. John's Athletics.
"Career night is good for several reasons. Student-athletes get to meet alumni who have had a modicum of success. These professionals tell the student-athletes how it can be done and that they can do it," said Wengroff. "It shows them how to get involved and that there are ways that they can afford their skills and ability to work as a team to benefit their career outside of sports."
Kaiser echoed the enthusiasm for the event. "I think career night is one of the most important things that happens at St. John's University, especially for the student-athletes. As we see here tonight, people have come from all over in the business world because they know where the good students are. The recruiters know that our student-athletes are positive, reliable and dedicated because they've been here before. There are also some new companies here, and believe me, they will be back because when they get a representative from St. John's, that person is going to be successful." Kaiser added, "We should have a career night each semester."