Growing up in inner-city Minneapolis, where virtually everyone lived at or below the poverty line, former Husky gymnast Zoey Schaefer dared to dream of a better life through education and athletics.
“Most students were worried about where their next meal might come from and about surviving the violence around us. College wasn’t even an idea, economically and socially,” recalls Zoey.
Then, the University of Washington offered her a scholarship and she earned a degree in 2018 from the Foster School of Business. Throughout her college career, she took advantage of intensive networking events like Dinner with a Dawg to build her way to a high-paying career as a business efficiency consultant.
Today, Zoey has come full circle. She recently returned to the event as one of more than 70 successful professionals, 23 of whom were former UW student-athletes, who offered career guidance to young Huskies.
Senior Men’s Rowing coxswain Kieran Joyce participated in Dinner with a Dawg for the last four years, relying on the event to introduce him to prospective jobs and employers.
“I graduate in June and then I’m off into the big wide world,” says the New Zealand native, who hopes his networking efforts will keep him in the Seattle area.
“The unique part of Dinner with a Dawg is that it puts you in the room with people you wouldn’t rub shoulders with every day. You learn how they got to where they are now.”
A collaboration between the Big W Club and the Boundless Futures program, this year’s Dinner drew 150 student-athletes from 17 sports. The longtime event was restructured to allow more networking time among participants.
For Zoey, taking part in Dinner with a Dawg as a student-athlete “helped me learn what I didn’t want to do, which was as important to me as narrowing down what I wanted to do.”
“I’m now at a place in my career where I feel I have value to add to an event like that, and I want to pay it forward,” she explains.“At the Dinner, I could remember how unsure I felt about everything before I graduated. You could feel that energy of uncertainty. It’s a very special thing to be able to find something you’re passionate about and to make that your career.”
Kieran points out that the pressures of academics and athletics leave little time or energy for considering what comes next.
“Hearing from athletes who’ve done well in life after sport opens your eyes and shows you that the experience I’m getting as a student-athlete right now is highly valued in different fields,” says Kieran, an economics major.
“In Rowing, I interact with 50 people from all over the world every day. Moving into a professional environment, I’ll already have the experience of juggling priorities and dealing with different kinds of people.”
Are you a former letterwinner or UW graduate who wants to share your insights with student-athletes?
Or a Big W Club member who wants to continue gaining career insights through the Big W Network, a networking platform for former Husky student-athletes?
Contact Justin Glenn at the Big W Club at [email protected].
