The crown jewel of a student athlete’s career has to be when they star in a game-winning play, final seconds ticking down for whatever famous professional team they’ve been drafted to, all the watching worlds’ hopes riding on them. In their shining moment, they glory in the bright lights and cheering masses, knowing this is the destiny for all Texas A&M athletes … or at least, that would be the dream.
As dazzling as playing with the pros seems, the reality is most college athletes won’t pursue that picturesque dream to its end. What happens when life’s paths tangle and twist, NIL deals fall through and athletes decide to chase more than one dream?
The good news is: the drive, dedication and discipline they’ve daily trained will smoothly lift them into leading careers. The better news is: A&M has a program to prepare them well for their future debut in the business world.
AmplifyU began with a need, brought to light around August of 2021. Dr. Janet Parish, director of the Reynolds and Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute, along with some colleagues from athletics and law, met with a former student turned sports attorney, Alex Sinatra. She was distraught over recent NIL deals and up-and-coming athletes’ lack of knowledge surrounding NIL law.
The idea of implementing education tailored to student athletes began rolling.
A couple of months later, Dr. Parish recounts meeting with Chris Valletta, Class of 2001 and former offensive lineman for the Aggies. As a now successful business leader, Valletta’s ideas for a new program would equip student athletes for future business careers, especially since the nature of athletics gears them toward hard work and lofty opportunities.
These pressing needs for proper education molded into a plan, and boot camps teaching these skillsets sprang to life over the next several years. As momentum and interest built, A&M Athletics commissioned a full-semester course.
Dr. Parish and Johnna Melton made this vision a reality through co-founding AmplifyU, a course for student athletes powered by the Student-Athlete Engagement Program and Reynolds and Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute. Their program is stocked with opportunities from former athlete panels to guest lectures to team sessions with the Mays Business School staff.
“No matter when or how they choose to enter the business world, whether that’s because they have NIL deals now or because they’re going to retire from sports 15 years from now, we’re giving them the knowledge, framework, tools and most importantly a network to translate into that business career in the future,” Dr. Parish said.
The semester class of around 50 students serves as an elective for typically business, agricultural leadership and sport management students. However, its purpose caters to any athletes looking to foster business connections and skillsets. Freshmen, upperclassmen and transfer students are all welcome even as they plan according to their different academic timelines.
“I would say the upperclassmen put in more effort to make connections with the former athletes and try to build their Aggie network to prepare for what their next steps are going to be,” Melton said. “So we’re really trying to plant the seed in the mind of freshmen that the earlier you can start planning for your future, the easier it will be for yourself.”
The future-oriented heart of AmplifyU has encouraged Aggie athletes to invest in their endeavors of tomorrow now and encouraged alumni to bring back their stories of success. Melton said one of the program’s most unique factors is how many former athletes come back to pour their time into teaching and advising.
“We have a contract negotiation class that’s taught by former football player Matt Joeckel, who’s currently a lawyer, and then Matt Douglas, who’s also a former football player – he does a lot of negotiations at his job at Stryker,” Melton said.
Other featured classes include a former athlete discussion by Michael de la Torre, personal branding by Katy and Logan Lee, digital presence and LinkedIn by Mark Peppercorn and many other courses and workshops from beloved alumni athletes.
Melton said some of the students’ biggest takeaways come from their personal finance class, where students take a look at their budgeting and watch where they are spending without often realizing it. They also hone personal strengths through social and even dining etiquette along with lifelong practices in professionalism.
“We also meet the education requirements for NIL law with this class, and so we cover: Who are you holistically as a person? And let’s do some smart things with our money, manage our debt, and manage our wealth,” Dr. Parish said. “So then when we have all these other opportunities like licensing or NIL or entrepreneurship or additional education, we’re in a position to maximize all that.”
By choosing not to outsource NIL education, Mays Business School mentors invest directly into A&M’s student athletes by laying out the paths before them clearly and preparing them for each one. The dream of launching educated and well-rounded athletes into their futures has come true and continues to grow as AmplifyU enters its second year in full swing.
Both founders said they have big plans for the program and look forward to seeing the success it will bring their initial and upcoming graduates.
“Our favorite thing to hear hands down is when a former student says, “I wish this program had been there when I was there”,” Dr. Parish said. “And we hear that from every former athlete we talk to, even the ones that graduated from Mays Business School and have been extremely successful.”
“I’m really excited about this program, and I’m excited to see how far it’s come from the first workshop that we put on,” Melton said. “Everyone who volunteers their time to take part in the class is really looking for the success of all of these student athletes and really trying to help them take the next step … and it’s really wonderful to be a part of that.”
