SWAC Announces Partnership with Women In Sports Tech
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- The Southwestern Athletic Conference has partnered with Women In Sports Tech to assist with providing student-athletes from within the SWAC professional development opportunities for career growth and overall educational advancement.
Since its inception in 2018, Women In Sports Tech, also known as WiST, has awarded 22 Fellowships to rising women stars in college and grad school.
The Fellowship was created to further the WiST mission to drive transformative growth opportunities for women at all stages of their careers throughout the sports tech and innovation landscape, while also educating and engaging middle and high school students about the wide array and variety of career paths in the sports tech industry.
“We are constantly seeking to identify ways to further expose our student-athletes to opportunities for professional growth and advancement,” said SWAC Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland.
“The WiST Fellowship’s overall mission and objectives align with many of the core principles of the member institutions from within the Southwestern Athletic Conference. This partnership will significantly enhance our developmental programs that we have in place to assist our students in reaching their maximum potential as they enter the workforce and embark upon the journey of starting a career in their respective professions.”
“Being part of the WiST community has shown me I am capable of all things as a Black woman in sports tech,” said Cydney Dodson who is a 2020 WiST Fellow. “I learned from a plethora of industry professionals who shed insights and advice into data and analytics and beyond.”
The SWAC will start the process of working with the WiST Fellowship Opportunity to identify student-athletes from the conference to apply for the Fellowship program.
Interested applicants have until February 28, 2021, to submit applications, additional information can be found by clicking here.
About the SWAC
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is considered one of the premier HBCU conferences in the country and currently ranks among the elite in the nation in terms of HBCU alumni playing with professional sports teams.
Current championship competition offered by the league includes competition for men in Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Indoor Track and Field, Outdoor Track and Field and Tennis. Women’s competition is offered in the sports of Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, Golf, Indoor Track and Field, Outdoor Track and Field, Soccer, Softball, Tennis and Volleyball.
Follow the SWAC
For complete coverage of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, please follow the SWAC on social media at @TheSWAC (Twitter), @TheSWAC (Facebook), and @TheSWAC (Instagram) or visit the official home of the Southwestern Athletic Conference at www.swac.org.
ABOUT WiST
Women in Sports Tech is a non-profit organization driving growth opportunities for women at all stages of their careers throughout the sports tech industry, from interns to executive leadership roles. WiST’s flagship initiative, the WiST Fellowship program, provides grants for college and graduate school students to pursue summer internships in sports technology businesses and startups. In 2020, WiST awarded 15 Fellows $5,000 grants, nearly quadrupling the number of grants over 2019. Additional WiST programs include original content via the WiST Presents: How I Got Into Sports Tech webinar series, the Sports Tech Leadership Series, and the WiST Career Hub to help connect highly qualified candidates with employers in the industry. Corporate support for WiST includes Nike, IBM Sports, the NBA, Spartan Race, Catapult Sports, Panzura, FEVO, HOKA/Deckers, Zoomph and numerous private donors and foundations. WiST has provided an array of diverse panelists for learning experiences at Hashtag Sports, CES, SXSW, the Stanford GSB Sports Innovation Conference, and more. For more information, please visit womeninsportstech.org.