Outgoing Husker Seniors Attend Life After Sport Seminar

On Monday April 15th, outgoing seniors from winter and spring sports gathered in the West Stadium Club of Memorial Stadium for the Life After Sport Seminar. A total of 58 student-athletes from 16 Husker teams were in attendance to hear from speakers, Nedu Izuegbunam and Mike Smith.

Izuegbunam, who is an Athletic Counselor on the Nebraska Athletics Sports Psychology team, led off the seminar with some words of encouragement for attendees as they prepare to make the next step in their journey after college, sharing that athletics is just part of their identity and not what defines them. He also discussed what life might look like when their playing days are over, whether that be after a professional playing career or once their college season ends, and how everyone's experience is a little different. Izuegbunam encouraged attendees to lean on a support system and led an excercise where attendees reflected on their personal core values.

The seminar continued with world-renowned stroyteller, Mike Smith. A former collegiate basketball player himself, Smith has established himself in the non-profit sector as the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Rabble Mill, as well as the Founder of both The Bay and Skate For Change where he uses the sport of skateboarding to make a postive impact on Lincoln youth and the surrounding community. He is also a Stanford Certified Design Your Life Coach and teaches a course in the UNL College of Business called, "Applied Design Thinking: A Human-Centered Approach to Designing Your Life". 

Smith led attendees in numerous activities that encouraged them to start thinking differently about what's next after their sport by asking the question, "Who do you want to be next?" rather than, "What do you want to do next?". Attendees wrote down a personal workview, reflected on their ideal "Maker Mix" which examined money, impact, and expression in desired career paths, and discussed the depth of the professional network they have built as Husker student-athletes.  Lastly, Smith guided attendees in making a "Mind Map" where they started with one idea for a job after finishing their sport and challenged them to expand on that idea to explore all the possible opportunities that related to their original word. 

"Working on discovering who we want to be next was really impactful. It helped me realize that the destination does not really matter as much as the journey itself and the path it takes to get there." Lorenzo Paissan, Men's track & Field.

An additional Life After Sport Seminar is hosted during the fall semester for all outgoing seniors from fall sports. For more information or if you have questions about the Life After Sport Seminar, please reach out to Assistant Director of Life Skills/PEO Director, Tom Lemke.