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User-Centered Design for Career and Academic Motivation in Student-Athletes

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Learning and Collaboration Technologies (HCII 2025)

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Abstract

Student-athletes, especially football players, face unique challenges in balancing academics and athletics, often viewing sports as their only path to success despite less than 2% advancing to professional levels. To address this gap, “I AM PRO” was created as a career exploration tool to help these young athletes broaden their aspirations and academic focus, featuring a culturally relevant Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) integrating advanced technology with career counseling strategies. Developed with principles from Human-Centered and Culturally Relevant Computing, the ECA reflects the characteristics and experiences of African American football players through tailored interactions, serving as a virtual mentor that guides personalized career exploration aligned with the National Career Clusters Framework and offering Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for various career paths. A mixed-methods approach evaluated the app’s effectiveness, involving quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with 79 participants from the Texas Youth Football Association, focusing on changes in athletic identity and career motivation. Participants reported a shift from an intense athletic identity toward increased academic motivation and awareness of diverse career options, with usability testing confirming that the app exceeded standards. This research highlights the need for culturally relevant career counseling technologies, demonstrating how tools like “I AM PRO” can empower under-served populations by promoting holistic development and advocating for integrating early career exploration in educational settings.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). The authors wish to thank Dr. Juan E. Gilbert for his support and guidance, the Texas Youth Football Association for allowing us to conduct the study, and the Human Experience Lab for help with research and analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32607, USA

    Sanethia V. Thomas, Jasmine McKenzie, Alaina Smith & Juan E. Gilbert

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  1. Sanethia V. Thomas
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  2. Jasmine McKenzie
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  3. Alaina Smith
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  4. Juan E. Gilbert
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Correspondence to Sanethia V. Thomas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Brian K. Smith

  2. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Marcela Borge

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Thomas, S.V., McKenzie, J., Smith, A., Gilbert, J.E. (2025). User-Centered Design for Career and Academic Motivation in Student-Athletes. In: Smith, B.K., Borge, M. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies. HCII 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15806. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93564-0_11

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