UNLV’s Ethan Klein, a rising junior on the Rebels’ swimming and diving squad, is one of 230 student-athletes that has been invited to attend the NCAA Career in Sports Forum, hosted at the organization’s headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind, from June 1-4. Klein is one of six student-athletes from the Mountain West to be selected to attend, while this marks the second straight year a member of the UNLV swimming and diving program will represent the school at the national forum, as Janelle Nguyen from the women’s squad attended the 2016 forum.
The four-day forum is designed to assist student-athletes in charting their career paths, with the primary focus on college athletics. The forum will provide the student-athletes with interactive experiences with successful individuals in the sports business and a peek into their day-to-day duties and responsibilities. Those in attendance will also hear from a variety of speakers and panelists, highlighted by Stevie Baker-Watson, associate vice president and director of athletics at DePauw University; Jason Burton, head women’s basketball coach at the Texas A&M University-Commerce; Clyde Doughty Jr, director of athletics at Bowie State University; Oliver Luck, NCAA executive vice president of regulatory affairs; Felicia Martin, vice president of the NCAA Eligibility Center; and Craig McPhail, director of athletics at Lees-McRae College. The participants also learn best practices for gaining employment and gathering a better understanding of what future expectations will be once they get a job in sports.
“I’m excited for this opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting to know people in the athletics world outside of UNLV,” said Klein. “I really want to take advantage of my trip to see what’s out there and what kind of careers are plausible for me in the college athletics after school. When I got the email about it this spring I was interested and I then talked to Janelle, and her experiences last summer led me to think it would be a great opportunity for me to learn about the administrative side of athletics.”
In order to be eligible be selected to the forum, student-athletes needed to be in their junior or senior year and be nominated by their school’s athletic department, before the NCAA then selects the final 230 participants.
Swimming news courtesy of UNLV Athletics.
