Temple University Athletics
When Practice Is on the 45th Floor
12.3.10 | Women's Lacrosse
Temple Lacrosse student-athletes get a taste of the corporate world at Comcast
For members of the Temple University women's lacrosse team, autumn is a time for off-season practices and games in weather far more temperate than the chill that greets the start of their regular spring season.
This year, though, fall ball looked a little different.
It began with a trip, in early September, to the ear-popping peak of Philadelphia's tallest building. Dressed in their best attempt at corporate attire, the Owls gathered with 20 alumni in a glass-enclosed boardroom to kick off a program that links current Temple students to alumni who work for Comcast, the cable-TV provider.
The program, Comcast Connectors, is the brainchild of Kristi DeSimone, a Temple alumna who works as a program manager in leadership and professional development at the company. About a year ago, she noticed that a man who sat near her in the office—a Syracuse alum—often met with students from his alma mater.
“There was a revolving door of students coming in and out all the time,” says DeSimone, who graduated from Temple in 2001. “I honestly felt bad. I thought, I'm not doing anything like this for Temple, and I'm in Temple's backyard.”
Her idea was simple: Find a way to connect the many Temple alumni at Comcast, one of Philadelphia's largest employers, to current students. She knew what she didn't want it to be. Not a mentoring program, which seems formal and stilted. Not a promise of a job upon graduation, because Comcast, like many companies, has tightened its belt during the recession. The ideal format would be something far more flexible and fun, she thought. Something as simple as a connection.
So DeSimone, along with a couple other Temple alums in her office, floated the idea to the university's career-services department. An athletic team, everyone agreed, would be a good test group. “They're completely disciplined individuals, but they don't have the time to get out there and network or do an internship,” DeSimone says.
Bonnie Rosen, head coach of the women's lacrosse team, leapt at the idea. So did her players. “They were really excited from the moment I mentioned it to them,” she says.
So on a warm September day, during a time when they could have been running drills or lifting weights, the team traveled from Temple's campus, in North Philadelphia, to the shiny skyscraper that towers over the western end of Center City. There, on the 45th floor, the lacrosse players met their “Comcasters.”
DeSimone—who played competitive club soccer in high school and now counts kickboxing and flag football among her athletic pursuits—had done her best to pair the players with employees who might have similar interests. She encouraged them to get together at least a couple times over the following months to chat about their backgrounds, their jobs, career aspirations—anything.
For Keelin Hood, a junior from Malvern, Pa., her match “was pretty perfect.” Hood studies early-childhood education and wants to teach first or second grade in the city after she graduates. She was paired with Rebecca Owens, a Temple alumna who is a publicist for Sprout, a digital channel that features programming for young children.
Not long after the September meeting, the two went to lunch. (They have met once more since then.) “It was nice to talk to her about how what she does benefits children in a way that I never really thought of,” Hood says.
Hood still wants to stick with teaching, “but it definitely opened up my eyes to what my other options could be as a backup plan,” she says. “If teaching didn't work out, I could still be involved with kids in some way.”
On Monday the team will return to the 45th floor for a wrap-up meeting. The program's future is unclear. Rosen hints that she'd like it to become a fixture. Under NCAA rules, she points out, the off-season offers a limited number of time slots for practice and training. But there's no reason, she says, that the players have to spend all of that time on the field.
“Being at Temple and having access to the city of Philadelphia is a huge asset,” the coach says. “To not take advantage of that is crazy.”
