Duke Club Events 4/12/2016 10:42:00 AM

Letterwinners Giving Back to Current Dukes

On Wednesday, April 6, the Duke Club and the Office of Student-Athlete Leadership Development hosted their third Student-Athlete Mentorship Event. This opportunity allowed current student-athletes to network, ask questions, and gain valuable insight from former JMU letterwinners. There were 16 alumni and approximately 35 student-athletes in attendance.

Starting with a discussion panel, the alumni answered questions about life after graduation for student-athletes. Later on in the evening, the current Dukes were able to talk to different alumni about their personal experiences in the workforce. The alumni were happy to offer any advice and help as they could.

Amanda Presgraves, a senior on the swim team, highlights, "During the panel, which I really enjoyed, I was surprised at how everyone was on the same page about how their strengths as an athlete were the strengths that they took into their career. That was very reassuring. I think a lot of people think that their identity as an athlete is all they are, but what we learn through our sport, through development and our team, can be taken to our careers, and we will not lose that. It was reassuring for a lot of us."

Doug Murphy, a former captain of the football team and a graduate of the class of 92, shared a few pieces of advice for student-athletes, "Continuous learning. Leaders are learners. Knowing that we all just graduated from school and stopped playing our sports, we should not stop from continuous learning. Knowing that we have fed our bodies to compete on the playing field, we now need to feed our minds to compete in the business world. By doing that is, one, maybe going back and doing some continuous education, two, reading books on continuous leadership or three, finding a mentor. That is very important." He strongly encourages student-athletes to find a mentor, and followed up by saying, "Even when they get a job, any questions they might have, any adversity they might face, I am here to help."

Presgraves concluded by discussing how valuable this experience was to her, "I participated in this event because I like connecting with people. These alumni have been through what we have been through, and they just want to help us. It is an opportunity to learn and get advice. These people have failed, they have made mistakes. It is easier to learn from their experiences. I found it incredibly valuable. They talk about networking, but I think it is much more than that. I think it is really connecting and gaining perspective."

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