Alumni Help Football Student-Athletes “Run Up the Middle” Toward Success

By Matt Mandel '19

The Kenyon Athletic Mentorship Program (KAMP) aligns current football student-athletes with alumni mentors who also played during their time at Kenyon. These mentors provide advice and assistance to the players as they consider  post-graduate decisions. Mike Beck ’11, McNeil Parker ’10 and Michael Hermanson ’09 formed the program with Head Coach Chris Monfiletto, which was adapted from a similar program at Northwestern University. The program now boasts over 70 alumni volunteers who work with members of the Lords football team year round.

Parker reached out to Beck and Hermanson while he was on the football coaching staff at Northwestern in 2012. When approached by Parker, Beck and Hermanson were excited to get on board with establishing a similar mentor program for Kenyon.

“We realized how fortunate we were to be in our various roles and how important mentors had become as we kicked off our careers,” Beck said.

In the spring semester of a student-athlete’s sophomore year they are matched with a mentor based on a number of factors including current interests in academics, desired industry and position, and geographic location.

“We try to pair up mentors and mentees based on as many touch points as possible which allows for the relationship to develop more easily. That’s part of the reason why we decided to go through athletics specifically, since you already have a few touch points,” Beck said.

The program holds two key events  per year. In the fall, KAMP hosts career workshops prior to the end-of-year team banquet. In the spring, the team and mentors reconvene for a second KAMP event that provides face-to-face networking and mentorship opportunities.

This year’s fall session took place on Dec. 8. Lee Schott, Associate Director of Career Development introduced football student-athletes to the new interactive Kenyon Career Network (KCN) mentoring and networking platform that will officially launch to all students in January. Bryan Jasin ’10, former Kenyon football student-athlete, spoke about the value of networking and how to make the most out of this new tool being offered through the Career Development Office (CDO).

“We had a few alumni there to share their own anecdotes about how powerful the alumni network can be if you tap into it,” Beck said.

Next, the Lords broke up into groups for informational interviews based on their interests in specific industries. They had the opportunity to ask questions of mentors in the field and have a trial run in a professional environment to prepare them for future interview processes. Juniors and seniors were matched specifically with career mentors in their areas of interest, while first-years and sophomores were assigned mentors to encourage professional exploration.

Alumni participation in the fall event was largely virtual. “This time around we matched mentors with small groups of two or three students. They had 30 to 45 minutes to call the mentors and practice having conversations in a safe space,” Beck said.

To finish out the event, the student-athletes honed networking skills by thanking their mentors over the phone, and then sending follow-up emails or writing a hand-written thank-you note.

KAMP programming is focused on creating a sense of confidence for players who are looking toward their futures. This process can often be daunting for students, so the program has included the occasional motivational speaker. A professional football player from the Cleveland Browns gave a speech at a past event. Additionally, Justin Morgan ’10, who is a professional motivational speaker and former Kenyon football student-athlete, has come back to campus multiple times to present at KAMP sessions.

“We’ve had various workshops on making your dreams reality, goal-setting, striving for more and achieving. We do our best to supplement what the CDO is already providing,” Beck said.

Beck, Parker and Hermanson want to make sure that Kenyon football graduates have strong mentors as they start their careers.

“We realized how useful it would have been [for all of us] to have had a mentor throughout the process. We were thinking of ways that we could set up the next generation of Kenyon students to be even more successful and to have an easier path to that success,” Beck said.

KAMP plans to expand beyond Kenyon’s football team. The leaders of the program are working to roll out a similar process with the Men’s Soccer and Women’s Lacrosse teams. The expanded program already has 10 new alumni volunteer mentors ready to help, with the hope of increasing that count to 30 by mid-2019. Student-athletes from these teams who are interested in taking part should reach out to Associate Director of Career Development Lee Schott at schottlc@kenyon.edu.