Hicks brings in guest speakers from across the community and alumni from a variety of professional fields to discuss relevant topics. One session, for instance, focused on résumé building and utilizing tools like LinkedIn to make connections.
“I had a résumé, but I realized how much fluff I had on it and stuff I didn't need,” Williams said. “I didn't know how much to put on there—I didn't know you could put being a student-athlete on there. All of that was helpful. I think my résumé is a lot better now.”
This fall marks Williams’ fourth semester on campus, having enrolled during the 2025 spring semester to begin practicing with the team. Following her arrival, she spent her first summer as a collegiate student-athlete playing even more basketball. The product of Perth, Australia, helped her country win a silver medal in the FIBA Under-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup. In terms of basketball development, the experience motivated her to set new goals. She doesn’t want it to be the last time she puts on that jersey, and she knows what she needs to do to have a shot at the senior national team. But such opportunities are themselves career tools, for all the reasons the Ingram Center programming emphasizes.
Williams is in her second season on the court with the Commodores (Sam Jordan/Vanderbilt Athletics).
“It taught me I have a lot more potential for leadership than I realize,” Williams said of the road to the World Cup. “I think sometimes I can be a little shy and kind of fall back and let other people do that. But that team made me realize ‘No, I can't do that.’ And I think that’s something I brought back to my team at Vanderbilt and I've been developing since then.”
Her second Vanderbilt summer, therefore, was about taking that knowledge and exploring how she might one day use it to serve others beyond her own locker room. After completing the Pre-Flight programming on an accelerated track during the first half of the summer, she spent the second half interning at Bigelow Legal, the prestigious Nashville-based employment law firm led by Double Dore Robb Bigelow.
Bigelow encouraged Williams and fellow intern and volleyball student-athlete Samantha Wunsch to sit in on meetings as he prepared cases, then prodded them with practical questions to get them to think about next steps. But what most sticks with Williams are the lessons that went beyond the theoretical, like listening as a mother described the hardships faced after a pregnancy-related wrongful termination complaint. For Williams, the sense of injustice, of wanting to help, hasn’t faded even as the internship receded.
Entering college, Williams knew what she wanted out of basketball and what it would take to grow on the court. She was less sure of her path off court. She explored an HOD major, having been a bit of an entrepreneur running her own cupcake business when she was younger, but quickly decided the business world isn’t for her. She’s now a political science major targeting a minor in legal studies, building on subjects she excelled at in high school.
Bigelow helped her understand what a career in law will actually require, from the LSAT and coursework to all of the steps between here and there for someone still a sophomore. It’s a lot, all the more for someone with a student-athlete’s schedule. But even by fixing two points on a map—here and there—she is now better positioned to explore all the careers in-between that could allow her to use her empathy, curiosity and conscience.
“I don't know for sure if that's what I want to do when I graduate,” Williams said of the law, “But if I graduate and that's what I want to do, I want to be in position to be able to go and do that. So this summer made me think about even just trying to join clubs and be a little more active in the community, even though that’s hard with the schedule that we have. It made me start thinking about my future a little more and understanding how much of a commitment that requires as well.”
Wilson puts her passion to work this summer with Vanderbilt Dining (Leah Dusterhoft/Vanderbilt Athletics).
Turning Dreams into Pathways
Trinity Wilson knew what she loved doing outside of basketball. Williams’ teammate on head coach Shea Ralph’s team, she just didn’t know if her passion could be a career.
After a summer interning with campus dining as a pastry chef, it doesn’t seem like such a half-baked idea.
Wilson went through Pre-Flight last summer. As Hicks recalls, just about everyone else in her class wanted to work in sports or finance, natural enough extensions of their experiences. But when she spoke with Wilson, the message was almost plaintive.
“Adora, I love to bake.”
A batch of brownies shared with the class left no doubt as to her talent. These weren’t some instant-mix imitation of the real thing. Growing up, Wilson’s mom, who also played Division I basketball, taught both Trinity and her brother to cook well enough that they were often in charge of dinner. But it was baking that truly burrowed its way into Wilson’s soul. She would watch videos online and try and recreate not only the cakes but the intricate decorations. She loves the feeling of seeing people enjoy something she created, from her trademark s’more cookies to the Biscoff cheesecake she made for a teammate’s birthday.
So, Hicks didn’t dismiss last summer’s conversations. During the academic year, she connected Wilson with Jennifer Bennett, pastry chef at the new Carmichael Café and a member of the Vanderbilt culinary team since 2010. Once Bennett, too, saw this wasn’t just someone who watched a lot of The Great American Baking Show and expected a professional kitchen to be a lark, she welcomed Wilson aboard this past summer.
“Trinity is a testament to what we want student-athletes to gain through Pre-Flight,” Hicks said. “You begin to discover what you want to do, and then you home in on how to network and reach out, and she did all of those things. It’s wonderful to see her fully engrossed in a 20-hour week with something that she truly wants to do once basketball ends.”
Scale made for more of a learning curve than skill. One day’s assignment involved making around 200 red velvet cupcakes, a far bigger order than anything she had tried on her own. But even when she worked on a smaller scale most days, Bennett (right, with Wilson) challenged her to master a full repertoire of baking staples. One week’s focus might be puff pastry, another pie crusts and still another yeast breads (leading to a delicious batch of cinnamon rolls). Naturally, one of her favorite weeks involved cake decoration.
Countless enthusiasts have foundered on the rocks separating a hobby from a career or business. But Wilson emerged, sans the hairnet that was part of her daily uniform, more interested than ever in pursuing a career, perhaps via culinary school and running her own bakery. That would mean a whole new set of challenges, possibly even more daunting than laminated pastries, with things like payrolls, business loans, rents and much more. Fortunately, Vanderbilt is a good place to find the resources for learning that, too.
“I wouldn't say I was uncertain going in,” Wilson said, “But if you haven’t done something, you don't really know if you're truly going to like it that much. You know, some people like to bake, but they find out they don't want to bake every day. I think I could really see myself baking every day and having my own bakery.”
Taking the Next Step
Nowakowski had a career plan beyond lacrosse long before she arrived at Vanderbilt. It’s one of the reasons the Delaware native picked the school, attracted to the blend of elite athletics and world-class academics at a school with strong connections to the financial sector. Growing up, her parents made it clear that if she wanted extra spending money, she needed to get a job. They also encouraged her to not just start saving, but investing. Even in high school, she would take some of what she earned from summer jobs at the beach and put it into stocks and EFTs. So, even though it took time to dial in the specifics, switching majors from economics to HOD, she knew finance was her calling.
As a spring sport participant, she wasn’t necessarily committed to staying in Nashville for the summer. She looked for opportunities close to home. But a teammate who had interned at LFM tipped her off about the firm and helped her connect with former lacrosse student-athlete Lexie de Roziere, a business development analyst with LFM.
“I was just networking a bunch within the area,” Nowakowski said. “I would find one contact in Nashville, and they would give me five others and I was just calling everyone.”
In addition to all she gleaned from a business development class she took last year, she used what she learned from the Ingram Center’s sessions on building résumés and cover letters, as well as interview preparation. It must have worked. She interviewed with LFM late in the winter and was accepted for the internship.
“Adora’s very resourceful,” Nowakowski said. “Anything I needed, I could reach out to her and she would have a quick response and help.”
LFM appealed to her as a firm that invests in small domestic manufacturing companies, often family owned. Founded by engineers and with a stated commitment to invigorating the U.S. manufacturing sector, it doesn’t, as Nowakowski put it, have the “big, scary reputation” that comes with the private equity label. It wasn’t just a big name to put on her résumé without ever really doing much more than making coffee. It was a firm in the middle of the action that was willing to let her ask questions and help her learn.
“I was so nervous going into this internship,” Nowakowski said. “In lacrosse and school, you're surrounded by all these girls who you know, but this was the first time I was truly doing something solo. I think putting yourself in uncomfortable situations is the biggest way to grow and develop. And now, in class, I see myself being more likely to raise my hand and answer a question or speak up in discussions, just because I've been in situations where I’m being asked questions and it's OK to be wrong or not know the answer right away.”
She had her fair share of the sort of chores familiar to most internships, like following up to make sure the firm had the correct contact information for companies they were interested in. But she was also able to sit in on things like leadership sessions with managers and executives from the companies in LFM’s portfolio, seeing how a company in the thick of the real-world action tries to stay ahead of the curve.
Even for someone more clear-sighted about her career aspirations than many peers, athlete or otherwise, the internship helped her sharpen her focus and plot next her next steps.
“I realized that I really like client-facing jobs,” Nowakowski said of observing the people at LFM charged with going out and finding new investment opportunities. “And I would say it definitely opened up my network. A lot of the people who worked at the firm worked at other banks before. It was cool to learn about their path to private equity. It definitely broadened my perspective on the finance industry and made me realize I love talking to people. And it made me realize there are so many more jobs in finance than you realize. I feel like you have to get out there and look.”
Student-athletes and employers interact at last year's Career Fair organized by the Ingram Center for Student-Athlete Success (Vanderbilt Athletics).
Next Summer Is Always Around the Corner
There are 80-plus stories much like Williams, Wilson and Nowakowski from this past summer. They span bowling’s Haley Lindley, who so impressed during her time at Diamond Creek Farm that the premier event venue wants to bring her on full time, to track and field’s Lena Gooden, who worked as a research assistant for the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition, and football’s Luke D’Alise, who did student research at VUMC.
There will be 80 more next summer if Hicks has anything to say about it, maybe more. By this time in the fall, she’s already connecting with local organizations, companies and individuals about internship opportunities, Pre-Flight participation and the annual Spring Career Fair, scheduled for Jan. 26–27. Come spring, she’ll send out questionnaires to student-athletes to help assess their interests and match them with potential fits.
It’s all part of helping Commodores build their futures, even as they pursue championships in the present.
“For many of our student-athletes, this is their first internship experience,” Hicks said. “It feels cliché to say it, but it’s about them seeing that they're more than just a student-athlete, and they can excel in other things outside their sport and academics. As a student-athlete, you have amazing transferable skills. You do have experience that many of these top companies are looking for. You’ve just got to go out and get it.”
Are you looking for interns for next summer? Connect with Adora Hicks and the Ingram Center and to find out more about hosting Vanderbilt student-athletes.
