RAM Life Job Fair Creates Post-College Opportunities
Santo expands event by inviting all CSU student-athletes
Mike Brohard
Matt Bartz spent most of his evening talking to student-athletes, and it made him think.
The former Colorado State tight end spent last Thursday evening representing the company he co-founded, Envision Financial Partners, and it brought back a wave of memories. Of when he was in the same position graduating college and trying to find his place in the work force. What he witnessed, he loved.
And he wished it had been available to him, that there had been a Ricky Santo and a RAM Life around to put together a job fair on campus.
“When Ricky was telling me about RAM Life, I thought, what a cool opportunity for student-athletes. Just to be able to connect with people, have an opportunity to learn how to network,” said Bartz, who played for Sonny Lubick and graduated in 2005. “I didn’t know how to network; that was something I learned on the job. Even if they’re not in the job search yet, they can come talk to employers. For me it’s fun, because it’s one other way to try to help the program and give back. It’s not always about money, it’s about time. It’s fun to meet the current players and have an opportunity to do that, and it’s cool, because they have excitement to be here and meet people knowing for most the next step is not the NFL.
“His enthusiasm for everything, it’s no surprise he gets the kids fired up to do this. It’s cool the athletic department seems to be all in with support. I wish I would have had this. When I was coming out of college, you don’t know what you don’t know. Relationships don’t always get you a job, but they help you prepare for what you should know and how to prepare before you go into something.”
RAM Life – which stands for Real and Meaningful -- is part of the football program, and Santo has three goals as the director: To land his players in a professional league, get them into a graduate program or find them a career. The RAM Life Job Fair is just a part of what he sets up for the football players, with the program constantly bringing in speakers to educate the players about finding the right mortgage, controlling their finances or even buying the right insurance.
Santo had a bigger plan for Thursday, not just limiting it to the football players, but inviting every student-athlete on campus, as well as members of the spirit squads and the band. On hand were 31 employers spanning almost any career opportunity one would pursue.
“This my fourth-and-1 at the Super Bowl. This is what it’s about,” Santo said. “These kids, they bring the biggest smile to my face seeing how engaged they are. They’re building their future, their career and what they’re going to get into, so my job as being director of RAM Life, I need to help them align with a field and a degree program that gets them opportunities with one of these careers and this is where it happens.
“I expanded it because my heart goes out to every student. Football players and the program are my thing, but I realize the need for this, and I approached Director of Athletics Joe Parker to make this career fair bigger so we can make it an event and get bigger companies. We have national companies, and they’re going to come back if we show the numbers and recruitable student-athletes.”
I think this is amazing. It says a lot about this university, giving us the opportunity. Football can only get you so far, so having opportunities like this, setting up life connections is more important.Mohamed Kamara
Just about every team and organization Santo invited was represented at the fair, and they spent the evening mingling with prospective employers. All of the businesses had spots available, be it for internships, shadow opportunities or even permanent positions.
Some of the student-athletes were seeking positions, while some were just collecting information and learning how to speak with job recruiters and get more comfortable with the process.
“It gives me the opportunity to interact with certain people and certain businesses,” CSU football player Mohamed Kamara said. “For example, how I make a resume for this particular business or that particular business. I think this is amazing. It says a lot about this university, giving us the opportunity. Football can only get you so far, so having opportunities like this, setting up life connections is more important.”
Volleyball player Ciera Pritchard noted she is the daughter of a salesman, so it’s always come natural to her to walk up and start a conversation with people. What the event allowed the psychology major to do was speak with a wide-range of people about a myriad of career opportunities she may chase after graduation.
Having excess information is never a bad thing, and on top of it, she found a job prospect for the summer.
“I think this is a really good opportunity. I already have a lot of connections in my field personally, but upstairs I talked with the Poudre School District and found an opportunity to tutor kids this summer,” she said. “That’s really cool I now have an opportunity to have a summer job to support me while I’m here for workouts. That was cool, and I’m making connections in the future. I talked with the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce, and that’s good for me personally as a psychology student. If I wanted to open a private practice one day, they are a huge resource for that. It’s really nice to be able to build those connections.”
As Santo knows, and the businesses at the job fair echoed, walking around all evening were people in a prime candidate pool for the workforce. Bartz was not the only former CSU athlete in attendance as there were more than a handful. One of them was Adam Korutz, who through RAM Life, landed a job with Swinerton Construction as a project manager through connections he made with them in the program.
OtterBox recruiter Roberto Jackson is himself a former college athlete the benefits of the skills learned in the athletic arena. The first job interview he had came because he saw an add in a newspaper from an insurance company looking for “sports-minded” people.
Jackson said he didn’t understand it at the time, and it didn’t even connect with him when the interview was done. Through is work experiences, it has become crystal clear to him.
“He talked to be about how athletes are coachable, understand working toward goals and drive and determination, but more importantly the team working,” he said. “To come in an organization and work as a team.
“It didn’t make sense at that time. As I grew professionally and started to work with different teams, it made perfect sense.”
Part of the OtterBox mission is servant leadership and community service, so appearing at a job fair specifically filled with student-athletes was a prime opportunity for the company. For a Korutz, a Bartz and even a Dallas Davis, a former football player representing the Colorado Rockies, it provides the chance to give back to their university.
They know what it’s like to go into the work force, somewhat blind for some of them. As excitable as Santo is on any given day, even without caffeine in his system, his enthusiasm was contagious as he moved throughout the upper and lower levels.
The best part was seeing Rams helping Rams.
“They were excited, and a lot of the former Rams when we reach out to them, they want to give back to the university,” he said. “This is one way they can do it.”