For the second year, a program is in place to help VSU’s athletes find jobs after their college playing days are over.
 The program is called Career Assistance for Athletes and is run by Career Athletes, a Kansas-based company that serves more than 1,200 colleges and universities nationwide.
 “It starts them before their graduation and prepares them while they’re in school and leads up to after graduation,” Teddy Morris, graduate assistant for the Athletic Department, said.  “It’s a liaison between mentor, alumni, and current student-athletes.”
 Since alumni do take part in the mentoring process of the program, the Athletic Department and Alumni Relations both fund this program.
 To get involved with this program, a student-athlete must start by filling out a registration form, but since many VSU athletes have not been exposed to the benefits of the program, representative will begin talking to freshmen seminar classes soon.
 There is a 90 percent return rate to campuses worldwide and over 250,000 student-athletes take part in this program on campuses across the nation.  Because of the growing rate, there are currently 900 on-campus seminars to benefit the athletes, although there are no seminars currently on VSU’s campus.
 Career Athletes is used on 70 percent of NCAA registered school campuses.   �
 “Jobs are posted on the website daily,” Morris said.  “As of this month, the newsletter says there are 6,800 new career postings, but this doesn’t guarantee a job; it provides the company a place to post jobs and a place where the current student-athletes can come and see what the job openings are.  There is no guarantee, but it helps with the process of getting a job.”
 The companies that post jobs on the website are in partnership with Career Athletes, and will notify the program when a job opening is available.  In turn, Career Athletes will post the job on the website.�
 “Success is measured by how many users we have,” Morris said.  “Each person is important to VSU, so if we could help one person, that would be achieving enough…the more that come after that is just icing on the cake.”
 Upon graduation, Career Athletes makes an effort to keep up with the alumni by offering a place on the website where the alumni can choose to mentor other student-athletes in a more direct, hands-on approach. �
 “Anything that assists with our student-athletes having good opportunities after their graduation is certainly something we are going to support,” Herb Reinhardt, Athletic director, said.