ABSTRACT

Stella, at the age of 28 years old, is a novice dual career support provider at a European university. For the past two years she has been assisting student-athletes in their dual “university and high-performance sport” career pathway. Stella is no stranger to the university where she currently works. She was a well-known student-athlete herself, combining a professional beach volleyball career with studies in sports science. During Stella’s time as a student at the university, services for student-athletes were nonexistent. Upon starting with her university job, Stella realized that support services for student-athletes at the university had not improved since she graduated, and that she had to start developing them from scratch. Stella’s work with the student-athletes themselves has mainly been academic and organizational in nature.