On Leap Day (Monday, February 29), the student-athletes of Chapman University took a leap themselves into Chapman University’s new Career Development Center program,
Playbook for Life
. This career readiness and leadership program looks for Chapman alumni who were student-athletes and who are interested in mentoring current student-athletes.

Playbook for Life is designed to empower student-athletes and provide them with the resources they need to be successful on and off the playing field. One of the goals of the program is to create an exclusive community of alumni collegiate athletes who are now excelling in the world of business, and who are competitors, teammates, friends, and trusted mentors to current Chapman student-athletes. From the backboards to the boardrooms, or the courts to the court of law, student-athletes (both current and former) maintain the desire, discipline, and resilience to thrive in the sport of business and life. The uniforms may be different, but the athlete is always the same.

Recent guest lecturer
Brian Sanders ’03
,
who is the senior director of ballpark operations for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
, shared with students the many ways his experience as a student-athlete prepared him for success in the workforce.

“My time as a Chapman student-athlete taught me more than my fair share of useful skills that I still use to this day: how to lead, how to fall in line, how to strive for personal goals, how to be a successful part of something bigger than yourself, how to seize opportunities, how to step up to challenges, how to find new ways to think and new ways to accomplish your goals, collaboration, perseverance, mental toughness,” said Sanders, who was a member of the Chapman baseball team as a student. “Success as a student-athlete doesn’t necessarily come from playing, but from juggling the ups and downs of team life, while managing studies, goals, and relationships along the way.”

The
Chapman50
alumni organization has taken a leading role in helping to launch Playbook for Life.
Chapman50
is dedicated to bringing alumni leaders together in an effort to positively contribute to the advancement of Chapman University. One of the primary functions of the group is mentoring students, along with providing scholarship support.

playbook4
The Playbook for Life program currently has 20 students in its first cohort, made up of juniors and seniors, 18 of whom already had internships or job offers lined up after the conclusion of the spring semester! We are very proud of that number and looking to help each of our students find not just their first job, but their career path.

As an advocate for student-athletes, I invited my Chapman50 student mentee Sam Mittledorf to join me in participating in the Playbook for Life program. A student-athlete himself, Sam is on the Chapman University tennis team. The skills we develop as student-athletes never leave us. Whether it is our competitive nature, strong organizational skills, being a team player, or juggling a busy class and practice schedule, we retain these skills in our personal playbooks for life.

Sam was also my guest at an AthletesTouch professional development meeting. AthletesTouch is a membership organization for former college athletes now in the business world who are looking to enhance their professional networks. As a soon-to-be alumnus, Sam plans to become more active with the Young Alumni group next year to improve his networking and career search skills.

When I first chose my personal playbook for life, a Chapman University professor made some introductions for me to other alumni in the industry I wanted to get into. This single act of thoughtfulness is what motivates me to return the favor to current student athletes who could benefit from connections within my professional network now. Students, staff, professors, and alumni should work together to make the student and alumni experience special for each member of the Chapman Family. We all can directly work together to improve upon the value of our degrees.

Due to the success of the Playbook for Life program, we will be creating an additional program this fall called
Playbook for College
, in which freshmen and sophomores can participate during the upcoming fall semester. It will help our incoming students get more familiar with potential internships and resources at the Career Development Center. If you would like to get involved with either program,
please contact Assistant Director of Career Relations Franciska Morlet to learn more.