Are you a UVM athlete and wondering how your athletic skills may translate into the working world post-competition?

Or maybe you love sports, business, and/or entrepreneurship, but unsure of how to best network and market yourself in this unprecedented time? Join us for a virtual pre-recorded session with UVM alums and former student-athletes Jerry Tarrant '89, UVM Varsity Hockey and Nikkie Kent '05, UVM Varsity Soccer for a unique perspective of their careers in business and entrepreneurship after college sports. By the end of this session you will:

  • Learn about former UVM athletes and their career trajectories in business and entrepreneurial fields (in local, national, and international contexts)
  • Understand how competencies & skills from athletics/sports transfer to the working world
  • Define "Career Management" and how to effectively network and market athletic and academic skills during your career exploration.

Part 1: Introduction

In this video, the panel learning objectives will be reviewed and you will be introduced to UVM alums and former student-athlete panelists Nikkie Kent, 05’, Chief Revenue Officer at Mamava and Jerry Tarrant 89’, Partner and Co-founder of Stratton Aviation, LLC and Co-founder of Package Aware, LLC. Nikkie and Jerry also discuss working together for several years at MyWebGrocer, Inc. which was co-founded by Jerry in 1999 – showing how university, athletic, and professional worlds can continually crossover.

Part 2: Balance

Nikkie and Jerry will talk about their experiences as former UVM student-athletes. They explain what it was like balancing these roles, including successes and challenges they faced when picking a major and performing academically, and how they landed in entrepreneurial and business fields - emphasizing it’s okay to not know exactly what you want to do while you’re in school or even after you graduate.

Part 3: Career Competencies

In this video, Nikkie and Jerry discuss the important competencies they developed through sports and how these skills have transferred to their professional successes. Highlighted in this section is resiliency, work-ethic, communication, collaboration, leadership, and intercultural fluency, including a discussion on Jerry’s experience playing professional hockey in Italy.

Part 4: Career Management

In this video, the Career Center will define the term “Career Management” and ask how student-athletes can effectively network and market their unique attributes. Nikkie shares more about the importance of having a willingness to learn, demonstrating self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and being able to communicate your strengths and weaknesses effectively to market yourself.