This summer, UTSA Athletics will be profiling its numerous areas to provide an inside look into how each unit serves Roadrunners’ student-athletes.
In this edition, we sat down with Stefanie Cisneros, Assistant Athletics Director for Life Skills, to discuss UTSA’s robust Student-Athlete Development program.
Q: How does your department service UTSA student-athletes?
Stefanie Cisneros: “The biggest thing that Student-Athlete Development does is provide support and resources for the student-athletes to help them work towards their lifetime goals. That’s everything including building skills in leadership, the personal and wellness pieces, the transition to UTSA, the transition out of UTSA, and then a big piece is community service. It’s really providing those resources to help them reach whatever their goals might be, whether that’s professional sports or the next step in their career path after they graduate.”
Q: What makes UTSA a leader in your area?
Stefanie Cisneros: “The collaboration that we have with campus. I don’t think my role or this unit would be possible without that collaboration. As an example, I recently participated in a workshop session where we were focusing on emotional intelligence with some of our student-athletes who are interning for the summer. Rachael Miller with the Najim Center for Innovation and Career Advancement provided that workshop for us. Being able to have collaborators on campus is huge, especially because there is just one of me in my specific role, along with Christine Moeller [Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Welfare].”
Q: Why did you choose to come to UTSA?
Stefanie Cisneros: “I’ve been here my whole career. My choice to come to UTSA was as a student. UTSA was very different in the late 1990s; it has grown so much. I had the opportunity to come here at a time when we were still a relatively young institution. We didn’t have football. I wore the ‘still undefeated’ shirt. All my friends were student-athletes when I was in school here. I was a kinesiology major and I lived in the Oaks alongside student-athletes. Bill Hickey, our former AD Lynn Hickey’s husband, was in the role I have now before me. He was actually one of my professors at UTSA. That connection to athletics was made when I was a student. I started working as a work study student in the Career Center and then became full time. Because of the connection, Bill asked me to come in and do career presentations. That developed into doing my master’s in counseling and supporting athletics in a number of ways in career development. While I was in the Career Center, I was really the first liaison between the Career Center and athletics. I advocated for a role that just worked with student-athletes. They actually took all of the other pieces aside from supervision off my plate and I was able to dedicate my work to working with our student-athletes and that was huge. By that time, UTSA was growing and football was on the horizon. The trajectory that we were on was great. I worked in career development and was a career counselor for about 15 years. After Bill retired, I was working so closely with our student-athletes that the administration asked if I wanted to apply for this job. I did and the rest is history.”
Q: What are the most rewarding aspects of your role?
Stefanie Cisneros: “Hands down, it’s watching the student-athletes grow and develop, and developing relationships with student-athletes. The relationships through SAAC [Student-Athlete Advisory Committee], through BASE [Black Athletes Striving for Excellence] and getting to develop relationships with our coaches. I get to watch the student-athletes come in as freshmen and develop skills off the field as just people. Then I get to watch them talk about what they want to do after they graduate and get excited about writing their resume and applying for jobs, even though there might be some nervousness about it. It’s getting them ready for that next step.”
Q: What is something about your department that people may not know?
Stefanie Cisneros: “I don’t know that many people know that we have six different pillar areas that we touch on within Student-Athlete Development, but it’s a pretty wide scope of areas that we cover.
- The first is the Transition to UTSA and new student-athlete orientation. We have an AIS [Academic Introduction and Strategies] course, which is a course that every single student at UTSA takes as an incoming freshman. We have sections for student-athletes. That piece is huge for development.
- Community Service. We’ve done so much and there are so many good things that have come out of our community service. Team IMPACT is huge and it’s been amazing to see the relationships we’ve built with the kids through Team IMPACT. We’re also very involved with the San Antonio Food Bank. We do a lot with campus – They have Roadrunners Give Back and Day of Service, and we’ve tried to be involved in that as schedules allow.
- Leadership Development. We have the Roadrunner Excellence and Leadership Institute. Student-athletes are nominated to be a part of that. Members of the institute meet once a month and we really try to figure out who they are as a leader and their personal leadership style. And then we talk about now that you’ve done the self-awareness piece, how do you use that with your team, with group projects on the academic side and as an employee once you go out into the workforce. They learn from other leaders – we involve coaches in that, we’ve had former student-athletes who have come back and talked about their leadership skills, what they’ve learned as a leader and how they’re using it in the workforce.
- Career Development is one that I really love. All of the resume development and the collaboration with the Career Center. We have a liaison in the Career Center – Josue Olivas – who we work with. This pillar includes resumes, interviews, job search skills, internships, and mentorship.
- Personal Wellness, which includes financial wellness. This is huge, especially with NIL, but I think just in general because not all of our student-athletes are on scholarship and they have to learn to manage their money. And the ones who are on scholarship need to be able to manage their money as well. I think that’s really helpful.
- NIL Education. The last few years, we’ve really tried to provide them with not just the financial wellness and tax education, but also personal branding and how to manage their social media in a positive way. We talk about how to build and maintain their brands.”
Q: What advice do you have for student-athletes who may be interested in going into your profession?
Stefanie Cisneros: “Become involved and become engaged. SAAC is a great way to do that but, even if they are not named as a SAAC rep, just be involved in any way that they can. And not just in athletics; being involved across campus is huge. If they can get involved in a student organization, if they can take part in opportunities that are going on on campus, and then come to events that we’re doing. I’m always willing to have anybody help. I had a student-athlete do an unpaid internship with me and she was amazing. The NCAA also has a lot of opportunities like the Career in Sports Forum. The NCAA has a number of ways they can get involved through leadership development and those are great steps.”
Q: What type of educational background is required for your role?
Stefanie Cisneros: “I think any major is good. It’s a lot about developing in experience. Having a degree in counseling has helped me because sometimes you are having one-on-one conversations with students about what they want to do. That background in career counseling coupled with the degree in counseling – the skills that you learn through that are helpful – but it’s not necessary. It’s probably more about skills and fit and experience.”