Two Owls, the sprinter and the businessman, talked career plans and leadership skills every two weeks for almost a year as a part of Rice’s Student-Athlete Development Program. Knighton, the student-athlete balancing track life with the classroom, hoped to build her portfolio of professional experience. She took Gee’s cue and earned an internship at a corporate real estate firm. Outside of the comfort zone of her health sciences major, she used her leadership lessons wisely. “I learned how to negotiate business deals and how to work with clients,” Knighton said. “I approached each day ready to learn. Certainty is less important than curiosity. Terrence taught me that.” "My goal," said Gee, "has been to help Precious and all of the student-athletes I work with understand how their work at Rice translates into a powerful set of tools for the business world. What might feel like a highly-focused set of activities is actually building the experiences, relationships and attributes that translate to a manager and a leader.
This story originally appeared in the Winter 2015 edition of Rice Magazine.