Life after St. Andrews?

We have been doing some advanced planning with the slightly quieter time in May (especially now that the horses are starting to leave for their summer homes and the numbers at the Equestrian Center are going down). One of the projects I have been involved in concerns helping our students with possible careers early on in college life so they can take the appropriate classes and maximize their St. Andrews education. Discussions for this project led us in several directions one of them being what our graduates are doing now. Renee Jones, Director of Career Services, complies data on what graduates are doing six months after graduation. She has done an incredible job with this the last few years.

2013 – 100% of grads are either working full or part time, furthering their education, doing an internship or serving our country in the military or in organizations such as Peace Corps. Data for previous years are equally impressive 2012 – 96% and 2011 – 94%.

Renee does something that most schools fail to do, she gets in touch with every graduate at the six month mark to find out what they are doing. Most schools poll 20 – 30% and draw conclusions from that and so their results are not quite as accurate as the SAU figures. Renee was kind enough to share the 2013 breakdown with me and it was pretty remarkable. Remember this is 100% of the graduating class reporting not a small sample!

Continuing Education – 14.5%

Internships – 1.3%

Full-Time Employment – 63.2%

Part-Time Employment – 21.1%

St. Andrews maybe small but these figures speak loud and clear for the value of the education provided.

Thanks for sharing Renee!

Highlights of 2013

January

• Equestrian program participates in the Martin Luther King day of service
• Scrimmage or Head to Head with University of South Carolina Gamecocks for IHSA Western & Hunter Seat teams.

February

• Snow Globe dressage show at the Equestrian Center. Lindsey Agaliotis and Kristen Parker qualify for IDA Nationals.
• Hunter Seat and Western team win their Regions and qualify for Zones.

March

• Our online store opens
• Ten students attend the PATH Intl. Region 3 conference in Hilton Head, SC
• Jeremy and Jennifer Sansbury welcome Greer to their family
• Several students qualify for IHSA Zones as Individuals at Regionals hosted by St. Andrews
• IHSA Western team wins the Zone and qualifies for Nationals
• Host first Easter Egg Hunt at the Equestrian Center

April

• IHSA Hunter Seat team wins the Zone for the first time in our program’s history
• Alumni weekend brought St. Androids from 2002 to town and a trail ride at the Equestrian Center
• Lindsey Agaliotis earns 3rd at first level and Kristen Parker 7th at Introductory level at IDA Nationals Mt. Holyoke College in MA.

May

• IHSA Western team Reserve National Champions!
• IHSA Hunter Seat team 8th
• Horses ship to camp

June/July/August

• Horses at camp, projects worked on, staff vacation and travel time, getting ready for the new school year. Horses come home early August.

September

• Josh Dazey represents Ride-Like-A-Knight and Scotland County at Special Olympics in Raleigh with Red Ted and Quinn
• IHSA Team place 5th at Tournament of Champions Invitational at Randolph College

October

• First ever back-to-back IDA dressage shows at St. Andrews
• Show team travels to Carolina Starz and Greensboro horse shows

November

• Students and staff attend Path International National Conference in Orlando, FL
• Showing Under the Stars – Halloween Edition!
• Scottish Pilot Club donates helmets to Ride-Like-A-Knight

December

• Ride-Like-A-Knight joins Amazon Smile program
• Horse Illustrated publishes an article featuring advice from Carla Wennberg and photos by Pebbles Turbeville

2009 Retrospective

The equestrian staff took a moment to reflect on some of the memorable events in 2009.

• New enthusiastic and energetic staff members joined the equestrian staff in 2009.
• Showing Under the Stars seems to be a staff favorite especially the Halloween edition where many of the staff join with students for the costume parade.
• Rob Jacob’s win at the IHSA National Championships in the Novice Over Fences division was a moment to remember.
• Every IHSA western team rider placed in their class at the National Championships.
• IDA team qualified two riders (Greta Friesen and Lauren Parker) for the National Championships.
• Restructuring saw the creation of the Equine Studies Department, chaired by Pebbles.
• The successful creation and delivery of online classes in both Equine Business and Therapeutic Riding.

Horse wise we said goodbye to Gunsmoke (GQ), Jester, Kampari, and Tuffin. Satchmo retired to Shelby French’s farm in Sweet Briar and Wheels found a child locally in Laurinburg. (He actually lives with Mike Kryszak). Bobby Lou went to live at Ann Neal Thompson’s farm and Lucky found himself a family in the Hope Mills area and competes in dressage and jumping at local shows with his teenage owner.