Shooting stars: CUSA program champions Huntsville’s career options
A launch occurred at the Conference USA Basketball Championships last week, but it wasn’t a jump shot at the Von Braun Center.
Instead, CUSA started its “Stars of Tomorrow‘’ program, an initiative the league devised to combine sports and career development to offer top students from member institutions an opportunity to engage with industry professionals and explore career opportunities in Huntsville.
The catch: The 19 students chosen from the conference’s 10 schools to participate were not among the athletes playing hoops inside the VBC’s Propst Arena, but from the general student population.
The project is a collaboration between CUSA and the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber. Students selected were given paid trips to the city, where they toured sites and met with representatives from local businesses.
“I would say that one thing we’re super excited about is this workforce development program we’re doing with the chamber,’’ Judy MacLeod, CUSA commissioner, told reporters at a pre-tournament media conference. “We’re bringing students in from all 10 of our schools and they’ll meet with the chamber, meet with corporations, meet with business people, do some things here (at the VBC), get some experience and then we’re gonna have them interview on ESPN+.’’
The tournament games were broadcast by ESPN+ and CBS Sports Network. The students were also honored during halftime of the games.
“It’s not the student-athletes, but it’s the students that have an interest in the programs in the areas that Huntsville is so great with,’’ MacLeod added. “And so it gives our kids another chance to see life after college and it gives Huntsville a chance to recruit the best and the brightest. So we’re really thankful for the chamber and working on that (with CUSA) and excited to see what happens.’’
Participating companies were Radiance Technologies, ManTech, BDO, Huntsville Hospital, TOC, Huntsville Utilities, Qualis and the U.S. Army.
“The partnership with CUSA goes beyond the court, and the Stars of Tomorrow program enables us to tell the Huntsville story in a different way,” said Joel Lamp, sports development manager for the Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Two attending students — New Mexico State’s Bethany Chacon and Louisiana Tech’s Dereck DeAgano — told the Huntsville Business Journal they were impressed following their visit.
“I really liked it,’’ said Chacon, an Albuquerque native and criminal justice/mechanical engineering major set to graduate in May. “I’ve been to other Southern states, but I hadn’t been to Alabama. It was absolutely different from what I was expecting, but in a really good way. I thought it was cool. One of my professors does work there sometimes, and she said it was upcoming — the aerospace industry — and she wasn’t wrong.’’
DeAgano, a civil engineering major from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, was likewise surprised.
“I didn’t realize how big Huntsville was,’’ said DeAgano, a New Orleans native. “That was like my first kind of shocking thing. You hear, like, it’s the Rocket City, but I guess in my head that’s so long ago I didn’t realize how prevalent everything still was in Huntsville. So I think it was more somewhat like a shock. I thought it was a smaller town, closer to Ruston and Monroe (La.) vibes.’’
DeAgano added that despite Huntsville’s newfound fame as the largest city in Alabama, he sensed its roots were dug into down-home tenets not seen in the likes of California, Seattle or Washington, D.C. — other cities that are known as technology hubs.
“There were a lot of people giving more family-oriented and small-town vibes,’’ he said. “I have always considered myself a very family-oriented person. So, hearing a lot of the stories of people who are in the defense industry, and they were working in Washington or working in these very highly-populated areas, and wanting to come to Huntsville and be able to have the more family-balanced life, I think was a lot more impactful on me of what I took away from (the trip),’’
Annie Davis, talent director for the chamber, said, “As these students take the next steps in their careers, we want to ensure that they consider Huntsville as a promising start.’’
The Stars of Tomorrow program certainly planted seeds.
“I really liked Huntsville,’’ Chacon said.
