Senior Ryan Plourde encouraged his fellow classmates to network with Fairfield alumni.
“The best advice I’ve gotten from an alum is to just get started early,” said Plourde, a marketing major and baseball player. “Don’t be afraid to send out resumes to people and if you get denied, you get denied, but at least you’re trying.”
Plourde was one of about 90 athletes who participated in Tuesday’s Student-Athlete Career Night where student-athletes interacted with alumni who played the same sports as them at Fairfield.
“You may come here and not want to be here, but you end up leaving with a connection for down the line,” Plourde added.
Director of Alumni Career Services Julie Tuozzoli ’85 said that the event began in the 2010 spring semester through the “Friends of Athletics” group that wanted to help student athletes with their prospective careers.
“Student need to be prepared, professional and grateful,” Tuozzoli said. “Most alumni are very willing to help, and when an alumni says ‘follow up with me,’ follow up.”
The event has taken place each semester since then with about 25 or more alumni from fields such as marketing, healthcare and financial services attending.
For Denise Graziano ’87, who played volleyball at Fairfield and double majored in English and communication, these events are a way to give back and network with students.
“I love to help the student and I have interns working for me now,” Graziano said, who has owned her own marketing business for 22 years. “The best thing you can learn about the alumni is that they want to help and they are very approachable.”
Director of Career Planning Cathleen Borgman ’80 said the career center and alumni career services are always “trying to work with different majors to try and develop events like this … Unfortunately, oftentimes when we put some of these programs together, nobody comes.”
Jason Fastore ’03, a senior the last year of the football program at Fairfield and a communication major, went to law school to be a contract and tax attorney. “All of this time, I thought I was going to be a big-time lawyer, and I did work as a contract and tax lawyer for the NHL for some time,” Fastore said, who is now the chief financial officer at Aflac Insurance. His first time at the event, Fastore wanted to “connect with at least one person and help them further their career in life.”
“It’s amazing how much changes in 10 years,” Fastore added. “The Kelley Center was a parking lot when I was here, and I got my car towed out of here a couple of times.”
For students, the event is an opportunity to make connections with alumni and discuss prospective careers.
Senior Kimberly Kurata, a business marketing major and softball player, who has participated in the event since her freshman year, saw an increase in attendance.
“It’s really nice to be able to interact with alumni, and they’re great,” she said.
Majoring in information systems, softball player Rebecca Trott ’14 said that it can be difficult to get into contact with a specific person because “my field is so specific, but there is a very good relationship with all alumni.”
“The event has grown with more majors and all different industries,” Trott added. “You get to see how the alumni got started and what they did and how they chose to do what they wanted to do.”
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