Harvard Football: Blueprint for action
MAIN AREAS OF CONCERN:
There were many areas of concern / things that need to be improved within the program, most of which can be categorized into the five buckets above. Through analyzation of these issues, I have developed a blueprint for the Harvard football team that I really think would improve the quality of both alumni engagement and career preparedness.Alumni connectivity
No knowledge about what is out there
Uncertain of interests
Not sure how to recruit / network
Can't go to the same events as regular students because of time constraints
BLUEPRINT MOVING FORWARD:
The blueprint that I think would best service my younger teammates is two fold:
1) An alumni database that creates an ease of connection between current players and alumni
With thousands of Harvard Football alumni, there should be an easier way to connect with them. That is why I propose selecting an alumni chair each year within the football team, that helps track down these alumni, and add them to a database that the younger guys can accesss. Think of this role as similar to a liason between the football team and the alumni. There is already an organization called the "friends of Harvard football", which is essentially the alumni base, and I envision the football alumni chair being in close contact with the board of the friends of Harvard football. Other teams have this sort of program within their organization, and I think that would be something that could greatly benefit the Harvard football team. This would not only benefit the younger guys on the team, but also the older alumni. Whenever I reach out to older alumni, they always talk about how they are happy to talk to a current player, and ask me all sorts of questions about the team and my experience here. Both the alumni and current students have a need/want to connect with eachother, and yet, no solution exists for this. Obviously year one this spreadsheet wouldn't be completely populated, but as more people graduate and more people talk amongst the alumni, this database would scale up quickly become stronger over the years.
2) Panels that older guys on the team and alumni can talk to the younger guys
The second important part of this blueprint is current players and alumni led career panels. There are many different fields and industries that our players end up matriculating into, and yet, the incoming freshman never know about these fields or have a clue of what they want to do when they enter college. Part of my blueprint would be for these alumni within the fields to have panels where they talk about their experiences, how they got into it, the recruiting process, and a chance to network amongst eachother. This would be greatly beneficial for the younger guys to get experience early on in their collegiate career so that they can prepare as early as possible. Many times, freshman pick concentrations solely based on the fact that the older guys told them to, or it's what they're "supposed" to do, so they end up doing something they aren't really interested in. These panels would help alleviate this problem. By being exposed to different industries and lines of work, freshman would have a more holistic view of what's out there and what possibilites they have. Not only would they have a better understanding of what they can do, but they would now have resources and people they can talk to, who understand them and their situation, to help them achieve such goals. This program would allow mentorship and guidance along the way and benefit everyone involved.
These two components of the blueprint combined would create an intiative of homogeneity within the program, making the team and alumni base closer. I know this plan is ambitious for just me to set up, so I aim to pass this along to the younger guys on the team to keep it going. I believe this is a plan that over time will only get better. In the first year or two this program will undoubtedly face issues and hurdles, as one of my interviewees has explained (who has set up a similar program, but overtime the kinks will be ironed out, and will provide utility to all involved. I am confident about this program and what it can do for the people involved, and I am excited to see it unfold!
