With numbers over half a million, student-athletes are a significant, yet unique, population on college campuses. They encounter unique experiences and face unique challenges, not the least of which is navigating the competing roles of student and athlete. Navigating these roles within the high-stakes and competitive world of collegiate athletics is the context in which student-athletes must develop a definition of success.Based on the theoretical framework of Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) vectors of establishing identity and developing purpose, the purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to determine how student-athletes define success from their personal perspective and move toward a more nuanced understanding of how the development of their student-athlete identity and perspective on career transition informed their definition of success. Seventeen former student-athletes were interviewed utilizing a semi-structured format with open-ended questions. Themes related to the student-athletes’ definitions of success, how the definitions changed over time, and how their definitions of success impacted their career transition were identified from the responses. The results of the study suggest student-athletes participate in an iterative process of developing and refining their definition of success as they progress through various experiences and developmental stages. The process is largely reactive and highlighted by an overwhelming lack of intentional decision-making. Recommendations are made for how institutions can more fully support student-athletes through a proactive process of defining success.
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