'Cats Wrap Up Another Successful Career Advantage Campaign

Since Career Advantage fully launched in 2019, it has become a focal point for Davidson Athletics, and we have strived to develop impactful programming to prepare our scholar-athletes for life after sport. The 2025-26 academic year was a special one as we grew our programming and posted a 99% success rate with our Class of 2025 Scholar-Athlete First Destination Success survey for the 5th year in a row.

This year, we successfully completed our 7th & 8th Pro 'Cats cohorts, our 4th Summer Business/Finance cohort, and our 2nd Leadership Academy cohort. Hundreds of advising appointments were conducted, we traveled with several teams, and we launched new programming series with baseball & football. We piloted the Torchlight Micro-internship program for three scholar-athletes who will be completing paid, three-week micro-internships at Red Hat. Additionally, we were fortunate to sponsor one scholar-athlete for the Stryker Student-Athlete Immersion program in New Jersey this summer.

As we look ahead to 2026-27, continued opportunities for alumni mentorship and employer engagement will be a focus to help prepare our scholar-athletes for life after sport. We welcomed several alumni guest speakers and friends of athletics to campus for "Career Convos," and we hope to expand those offerings next year. 

Thank you to all of our scholar-athletes, coaches, administrators, alumni, and campus & local partners - we couldn't do this without you!

Josh King

Assistant AD/Associate Director for Engagement & Athlete Career Development

Over the course of the 2025-26 year, our scholar-athletes engaged in 720 advising appointments with 264 individual scholar-athletes participating in at least one appointment (unique appointments). They recorded 1,988 event attendances, with 419 individual scholar-athletes attending at least one career event (unique attendees).

The Pro 'Cats Professional Development and Leadership Bootcamp unites a selected group of up to 20 scholar-athletes to develop leadership skills while preparing for careers in all industries. The program is conducted each August and January and is open for all scholar-athletes to apply. In a conference-style setting, scholar-athletes are exposed to a variety of topics below.

This year, Ann Thompson ('27) and Zain Butt ('27) served as co-facilitators for the Fall cohort, which provided unique insights from peers who have previously completed the program.

The Pro 'Cats Leadership Academy is an intensive leadership program that provides selected scholar-athletes with the opportunity to develop their leadership skills in a small cohort model and increase their potential to lead as effective team captains. The 2025-26 cohort served as the first full cohort with 16 participants. Former Leadership Academy participants Molly Sullivan ('26) and Anna Withee ('26), served as co-facilitators for the Spring Leadership Forum - they did a great job and received excellent feedback from their peers.

 Throughout the year, participants completed:

Team Events & Road Trek Highlights 

In its fourth year, this largely self-paced, virtual program will provide scholar-athletes the opportunity to prepare for careers in business & finance, whether they have a current internship or are competing in their respective sport throughout the summer. The program combines mentorship, technical training, and professional development in preparation for future internships & full-time opportunities, all while working around their individual summer schedules.

Recent participants have landed internships and full-time roles with organizations such as: Truist, Wells Fargo, Sia Partners, Bain, and more. Additionally, several participants have gone on to attend the Tuck Business Bridge program at Dartmouth and the Vanderbilt Summer Accelerator program in pursuit of careers in finance and consulting.

This year, to kick off the program, we partnered with Mike McQuillan and BEcamp to provide a one-day workshop covering: Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Consulting, and Basic Business Concepts.

A special thank you to Don & Sheryl Herrema, our participants, and each coach for seeing the value in stewarding the next generation of leaders and ensuring they have guidance, encouragement and opportunities. We're excited for a new year ahead but will look back at the 2025-2026 year with great pride. Go Wildcats!