- Santa Fe College hosted its fourth annual student-athlete orientation and networking event featuring keynote speakers and 40-plus vendors.
- Athletic Director Chanda Stebbins emphasized the importance of seeing student-athletes as more than athletes, highlighting their roles as students and community members.
On Thursday, Santa Fe College hosted its fourth annual student-athlete orientation and networking event.
It included members of the Saints’ volleyball, women’s and men’s basketball, softball and baseball teams.
Gavin Jones, a redshirt freshman for the Saints’ baseball team, called the event “very informational.”
“It’s a wakeup call in a sense for some people, and it was great for me last year,” said Jones, who played high school ball at Oak Hall School in Gainesville. “It was a wakeup call I needed…I think it’s a great event.”
Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Naima Brown and Athletic Director Chanda Stebbins welcomed attendees and opened a full day that began with keynote speakers and concluded with a networking opportunity featuring multiple vendors.
“We really are trying to invest in our students as athletes, as students, and as people,” Stebbins said. “And one of the things a networking event does is it teaches them how to learn about other industries. They don’t all know what they’re going to major in, and even if they know their major, they may not know what their profession will look like.”
MARC Radio, Mainstreet Daily News, Coca-Cola Florida, Zaxby’s, Dave & Buster’s, Insomnia Cookies and Edward Jones financial advisor Nathaniel Wingfield were among the 40-plus vendors available to the student-athletes.
“This is a really great opportunity for our community partners to get access to our student-athletes and provide them with resources and other things that can help them in their transition, whether it’s their first year or second year in Gainesville, acclimating to college life and acclimating to what Santa Fe College is,” said Communications and Operations Manager Jackson Matyczyk.
Author and motivational speaker Nathan Whitaker was the first guest at 8:15 a.m. Whitaker is the co-author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Quiet Strength,” Tony Dungy’s memoir.
The afternoon keynote speaker was Dr. Lakiesha Williams, who works at the McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) at the University of Florida. She is a professor of biomedical engineering and hosts the Williams Lab, which studies mechanistic changes associated with mild traumatic brain injuries.
The event featured panels with both current and former student-athletes.
Alexis Rhoden, a freshman on the volleyball team, said the event was very welcoming.
“There’s definitely a lot of meeting new people, which I really appreciate because I’m super social, and so having the opportunity to be social with people that I might need connections with further down the road is super awesome,” said Rhoden, who graduated from The Rock School in Gainesville but also played three years at Santa Fe (Alachua). “I think having those connections are really important and I’m glad that Coach Chanda set this up and we were able to do this. It’s overwhelming but like in the best way possible.”
Stebbins summed up the day, which began at 7:30 a.m. and ended well after 5 p.m.
“It’s a long day, but I hope the one thing that our students take away from this is that they’re definitely an athlete; of course that’s why they’re here, that’s why they have our jersey on, but that they’re way more than that,” she said. “They’re students, they’re community members, and so having the opportunity to kind of look at themselves bigger than just a student-athlete is really important.”