Graduate student hopes to give back to student athletes

Adam Davies’ undergraduate experience was highlighted by his time spent on Stony Brook’s track and field team. Davies — born and raised in Long Island, New York — two years ago decided to travel more than 1,400 miles to become a graduate student in sports management at Wichita State.

Davies’ time, not only at Stony Brook, but his experiences as a student-athlete greatly affected his plans and what he would do for the future.

“The student-athlete experience for me was very transformational, they were best four years of my life. I learned a lot, changed a lot for the better” Davies said.

Davies began as a health science major but his involvement in the athletic department made him realize all of the career opportunities inside college athletics.

“Being a student-athlete at stony brook I started to open my eyes to the world of college athletics” Davies said.

During his first year at Wichita State, Davies was a marketing associate for the athletic department. During that first year he found the life skills department, which he was naturally drawn to because of the help he received in his undergraduate years.

“Life skills is something that I got interested in my first year at Wichita State because I was working with them, not full time, but I went down to their meetings every week and it’s very similar to things I received as a student athlete and something I enjoyed as a student athlete” Davies said.

Davies found that he enjoyed working with the students directly, being able to make an impact on them. He also enjoyed all the different services that he was enabled to use in order to help student athletes.

“You try to make their student athlete experience as positive as it can be while also preparing them for success in the future after they graduate” Davies said. “We have a lot of different aspects at Wichita State such as leadership, personal development, professional development, communication skills and time management.”

His second year he received a graduate assistant job in the life skills office of student athletics. Now, working fully with life skills, Davies was assured that it was the right department for him.

As much as Davies loved his student athlete experience he realizes what could have been done better for him and the things he would have liked to have. This is what drives him; to give his students things he knows he would have appreciated.

“Adam as a student athlete really kinda saw the things that he knew he wanted to improve upon in his job just because he may have not had the opportunity where he was at” said Nathan Roth, a fellow graduate and Davies’ roommate.

Davies believes at his next job he’ll be able to spot the deficiencies of departments and give student-athletes more.

Davies is currently looking for a job for after graduation. He has applied to all corners of the country including California, Florida and Wisconsin.