Women With Altitude Networking A Great Resource For Buffs Student-Athletes
August 09, 2023 | General, Scripps Leadership & Career Development
BOULDER — Many college students tend to focus on the now, with little thought for the future. Although having the ability to be present is valuable, it is also critical to think about your career after college. Thankfully for student-athletes at the University of Colorado, the Scripps Leadership and Career Development Program reinforces the importance of this early on by providing resources and events.
During August 2022, the Scripps Leadership and Career Development Program held a "Women with Altitude" event in the Touchdown Club. At the event, nine internal and external female industry leaders came to network with current female CU student-athletes. Industries represented included aerospace, energy, higher education, public relations, tech sales, athletics, and corporate finance. The Women with Altitude event provided an excellent opportunity to network with women leaders in these industries.
A perfect example of a Buff who made the most of this opportunity is Katie Lougeay, a former CU volleyball player. At last August's event, Lougeay met Charlotte Franson, the Director of Operations at Capstone Partners, one of the largest and most active investment banking firms in the United States.
Katie's networking proved impactful as she reached out to Franson a month later and secured an internship for her senior year's spring semester. Since graduating in May, Katie accepted a full-time position at Capstone Partners as an investment banking analyst.
Scripps Leadership and Career Development highly encourages student-athletes to attend networking events like Women with Altitude because it gives them the chance to learn about different industries and talk to leaders in these industries to understand what their job specifically entails.
Lougeay emphasized being open-minded and putting in effort to "reach out and try to connect with as many people as possible because you never know if you're going to cross paths with them again and if there's an opportunity there." Lougeay added, "I did not know that I wanted to be in investment banking until after connecting with Charlotte and gaining experience through my internship with Capstone Partners."
Success stories like those of Lougeay are exactly what the Scripps Leadership and Career Development Program envisioned when implementing Women with Altitude six years ago. The mission of Women with Altitude is to empower CU female student-athletes to continually elevate their athletic and academic excellence through philanthropic support, leadership development and community engagement.
"It's important to make student-athletes realize that they are so much more than their identity as an athlete, and this helps them connect with the people who can see their skills and push them forward to find success in the next chapter of their lives," said Katherine Kubancik, assistant director for Scripps Leadership and Career Development.
Capstone's Franson supports this notion. "We have found when we hire athletes, they are used to a tough regimen and are very disciplined," Franson said. "So, I wanted to be on the panel at Women in Altitude to introduce investment banking to female student-athletes and empower them because it's a male-dominated industry and I want to change that."
CU Athletics strongly encourages female student-athletes to take advantage of the Women with Altitude programming because it clearly has real world application to aid them in their careers and life after sport.
The next Women with Altitude event is scheduled for Sept. 19 from 6-8 p.m. . The event includes a panel of a combination of ESPNW executives and former Buffs, as well as a workshop for student-athletes.