April 15, 2016
San José State University student-athletes gathered on campus, located at the head of Silicon Valley, to participate in the networking event Spartans to Success.In its second edition, Spartans to Success models a job fair, but served more as a networking event between the student-athletes and prospective employers from the Bay Area and beyond.Southern Wine & Spirits, LinkedIn, San Jose Police and Fire representatives and the San Jose Sharks made up a handful of the 20 companies on site with interest in job-seeking SJSU student-athletes. Each with its own booth setup inside Spartan Gym, the companies were available to network, critique resumes and run through mock interviews with the 37 student-athletes in attendance."The event is aimed at particularly our junior and senior student-athletes, although it is open for all," said Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student Services Liz Jarnigan. "It provides and opportunity to practice interviewing skills with a variety of different businesses. Then, there is the added benefit that they could actually end up with the benefit of an internship or a job offer directly from this event."Women's basketball graduating senior Emily Vann, who was just announced last week as a Dean's Scholar, was one student-athlete in attendance preparing for success after graduation."This event is helping me get started on the next step and giving me an idea of what I should be looking for," Vann said. "It's also helping me see how I can use the skills that I developed as a student-athlete and how they apply when searching for a job."Jarnigan and the San José State University Athletics Department will continue to host these networking events, and are aiming to grow the event.