Elite Conferences Provide Candy Jimenez-Caballero Opportunities to Grow as Professional, Instructor
Encouraging students to pursue their passions and keep an open mind along the way is what drives Candy Jimenez-Caballero as a teacher.
Candy, an Instructor of Sports Management for the Dunklau School of Business at Midland University, attended two conferences earlier this year where she learned the value of inspiring students to advance in their careers and do what they love doing.
“The biggest thing I took from attending these conferences was that you have to understand what it is about your job you love and why you’re doing it,” she said. “I want to help our students with their experience, and most importantly, I want them to be fulfilled in what they are doing.”
Candy attended the NCAA Emerging Leadership Seminar in Indianapolis in February. After being accepted through an application process, she was one of 200 individuals from across the country who got to hear a variety of speakers and work on group projects during the three-day event.
“You had a range of graduate assistants just starting out to experienced professionals who were looking for a different career path,” she said. “We got to spend an entire day with our group working on a case study. It was a great experience and I got to network with people from universities across the country.”
In April, Candy was one of 12 individuals selected to attend the USA Basketball Women in the Game conference in Cleveland, the site of the Women’s Final Four.
“We got to meet with a lot of coaches, at both the collegiate and professional levels, as well as people involved with USA Basketball,” she said. “It was a great event empowering women to get involved in athletics.”
One of the greatest benefits of attending these events is building relationships and connections that help her and her students.
“You make so many connections, and they might not apply to me, but I can connect my students with them,” she said. “It’s important to build a network of people who are there to support you.”
“I really enjoyed attending these events; now the goal is to get students to attend and realize if this is what they want for a career.”
A career in athletics was not on Candy’s radar while working toward her undergraduate degree at UNO.
However, after a discussion with an athlete during a class presentation, Candy’s ideals began to shift toward athletics.
“I was working on a Capstone project for my communications major, and one of the people I was working with was a member of the golf team,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for a career, and I was working on two degrees that didn’t involve sports. But after listening to her, I knew I wanted to be involved in sports.”
Candy pursued her Masters of Arts in Business with a specialization in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration at UNL. During her final semester, she worked as Director of Operations for the men’s hockey team at Long Island University in New York before eventually landing a job in the athletic department at the University of North Dakota.
Entering her second year as an instructor at Midland, Candy said it’s important for students to realize that every career path in athletics requires dedication and offers its unique set of challenges.
“Working in sports is fun, but there are long hours, and you can get burned out,” she said. “You need to understand why you’re doing this and make sure that translates to a career path. Right now, you don’t have to figure out where you might end up, but you do have to figure out why you want to do this.”
