UNC Asheville Alumna Elizabeth Conte Supports NCAA Student Athletes through COVID-19 Closures

Frontline and Front-Page Work During COVID-19

By UNC Asheville

May 6^th, 2020

When UNC Asheville alumna Elizabeth Conte found herself as one of only 30 applicants out of thousands selected for a prestigious NCAA postgraduate internship, she was thrilled; she certainly didn’t expect to find herself working from home, helping to support student-athletes through the canceled seasons and championships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. But Conte is learning to roll with the surprises.

“It’s changed,” Conte said, “but the work hasn’t stopped.”

As the Division I intern in the NCAA governance department, Conte's main duties are reporting and assisting various committees with their work, including the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) comprised solely of student athletes from across the country. “I help them through discussions and their meetings and the issues that are brought to them,” said Conte, who was on the swimming and diving team at UNC Asheville. “That’s my favorite part of my job, because I got to serve on that committee as a student-athlete, and then being on the other side as a staff member, supporting them has been a cool role to be in.”

Like so many others, Conte is now working from home as she completes her internship with the NCAA.

“I think working at the NCAA has taught me a lot, but especially in this experience. I was not expecting to have this experience as part of my internship, with all the seasons closed and the championships closed, there was a lot of mourning for those events not happening, especially for the student-athletes, that got ripped away from them,” Conte said. “It was really hard for me and the staff at the NCAA to see that happen, although it was the best decision.”

But Conte has found hope in continuing her work with the student-athletes, and in hearing the stories they’ve shared about their experiences in college athletics, and why they hope to return to athletics now that the NCAA Division I Council voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition.

“Just seeing the resiliency of the student-athletes that want to come back…it’s been encouraging for me to see those stories and realize that student athletes understand the decisions that were made, even though they weren’t favorable,” Conte said. “So that gives me hope in my career, and gives me hope in general that people are still looking at the positives and thankful for their health and what they have and their experience in college.”

UNC Asheville Alumna Elizabeth Conte Supports NCAA Student Athletes through COVID-19 Closures

Though Conte had not initially envisioned a career in college athletics, she said her studies in economics, Spanish and legal studies at UNC Asheville have still been crucial to her job.

“The financial knowledge and the analytical ways that I was taught to think in economics are the tools that I use most in my work, and what I will continue to use as a I work my way up in athletics,” Conte said.

“My professors at Asheville forced us to think out of the box," she continued. "Economics is very cut and dry, but they always try to relate it to something in the real world that you could connect to. In one of my classes we studied the 2008 financial crisis, and in many ways, we are seeing this all over again but in a different way with the pandemic. With that background knowledge, I understand the behind-the-scenes of the impact athletics departments are facing from not having seasons and not having the championships.”

Elizabeth Conte received the inaugural Janice Brumit Rising Star Award

Conte plans to continue her career in college athletics with another postgraduate internship, this time at UNC Chapel Hill in fundraising and development. It won’t be Conte’s first time working in development, as she spent time as a college athlete speaking to donors at events like Our Turn to Play, and was even awarded the inaugural Janice Brumit Rising Star Award for her work.

“I’m excited about my internship with UNC Chapel Hill,” Conte said. “I have a little bit of experience in fundraising and development, but not a ton, so I’m looking forward just to be in a new environment with a larger population of students at a school with football, and a larger basketball program. It’s going to come with new challenges that I’m excited about.”

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