Interview with Kareem Alazem, Connecticut College

Interviewer: Today we have Kareem Alazem from Connecticut College joining us. He’s on the hockey team there and you’ve done a bunch of clubs and you have all kinds of experience so we’re excited to have you today. We were connected previously through my position in the Bridge Program at Tuck School of Business and so just to get things started the first question I always ask:

How did you end up at Connecticut College?

Kareem: Yeah, so when I was a senior in high school, I applied all over the place and got into Conn my senior year but didn’t end up taking the spot here. I went and played junior hockey for a semester and I had the ability to go back and be like, ‘Hey, could you guys take me second semester?’ So I took a non-traditional path to school, I took a semester off and then came in and that’s how I was able to defer my acceptance a year so I was able to just jump on the opportunity.

Interviewer: Okay, so did that lead to a redshirt season or could you just join kind of halfway through?

Kareem: I joined halfway through, I played half the games. Luckily, the team only played eight games before Christmas break, 14 or 15 games total, so I got like two-thirds easing in.

Interviewer: That’s awesome. So it sounds like it’s kind of a unique situation. What pushed you to make that choice to stay and play junior hockey?

Kareem: I wanted to at least give myself the experience of playing junior hockey. At first, I thought I wanted to play Division I hockey and at the time was actually committed to RPI out in upstate New York and they wanted me to play a year of juniors. And as I was there, I was like, ‘You know what? Like, I just want to go to school. I want to go to college I just want to go to college, I just want to go to a NESCAC, my goal is to either end up at a NESCAC or an Ivy, and I was able to do that so it worked out perfectly.

Inteviewer: Amazing. Yeah, RPI is good academically too. I played them in baseball so they’re D3 for that, but they’re D1 hockey up there?

Kareem: Yeah, hockey, I think, is their only D1 sport there.

Interviewer: Yeah, okay it’s interesting because RIT is another one, they have a really good team – they might play each other. And I like talking about Division I versus Division III because there are so many schools out there that are good. Was the combination of academic and athletic rigor, something you were really seeking out as you were exploring Connecticut College?

Kareem: I wanted something where I could be in a classroom and actually take advantage of that, and also like the alumni base that we have, whether it be from Conn or any other NESCAC; I can reach out to anyone that went to Colby or Bowdoin or whatever, and I think that’s a really good thing. And they’ll answer me any day of the week, so… I like that piece. Then, hockey was super competitive, but you didn’t have or at least we here at Conn don’t have the same schedule that some of the big-time Division I programs have where they are spending six, seven, eight hours a day at the rink or in the gym or whatever. We’re closer to like two to three hours a day down there, so that just made more sense for me, yeah.

Interviewer: So still a big commitment and I’m biased because I was D3 and I just take a lot of pride in the college athletics commitment at any level, and it’s still a very competitive space. You still have those 8+ hour days too. So, I think it’s great to highlight that and the NESCAC also takes so much pride in that little community of schools that they have and so I’ll get more into that alumni point that you made too. Well that’s really cool, yeah it’s got to be interesting coming in after a full semester and just to give you a sense of what we touch on, I try to focus on the academic theme at the school you’re at, the community and then your professional goals.

So halfway throughout the first year, what was that change like going from juniors in high school to college for the first year?

Kareem: Yeah, yeah, so it was really cool to be right in the classroom. To be completely honest, I struggled a little bit just because I was at a boarding school my senior year and did really well in the classroom there but then took a semester off and so when I got to school, everyone already had that learning curve of getting to college and I hadn’t done it yet. And so I got there and was a bit shocked and struggled. Then, I took the summer to just relax a little bit and learn. Right when I got back on campus, I started to be able to figure it out like to do well again but at first it was it was a struggle for me and a lot of people I’ve spoken with have said the same thing like their first semester is tough just because you’re getting used to things and you can be a first year in a classroom with juniors and they just have experience with the school whatever the system is that they use like for the computer system and that that sort of thing so it just it’s a learning curve.

Interviewer: Yeah for sure and jumping right into the middle of the season and you haven’t even practiced with the team yet so you got like the team chemistry side of things you’re meeting people and so that’s a big transition and I don’t think I asked this yet but…

What’s your major currently?

Kareem: I’m an economics major and I’m minoring in finance and Arabic as well.

Interviewer: Okay very cool that’s a really cool combo. I’ll ask a bunch of questions when we shift into the academic side so getting set up kind of midway going into the spring you probably hadn’t met an advisor or anything yet.

Did you meet a ton of admins and faculty like how did that work halfway through your first year?

Kareem: So I did everything over zoom when I first got on campus meeting everyone I had to meet and doing that onboarding process essentially was on zoom there were like seven or eight other people on those with me just because there were transfers or whatever so I got to meet with our team advisor which is nice so I got to meet with them and they helped me pick my classes and got set up but everyone had that so everyone coming in second semester was able to meet with an advisor. They had help scheduling classes, and then there were also like student advisors that are like, ‘Hey, you want to take this class?’ or ‘Hey, you don’t want to take this class,’ so you have that sort of structure.

Interviewer: So, different levels of support and it’s kind of on the ground with the students. I know I benefited from upperclassmen. I know the first time I registered there was a super senior and just a typical senior. They sat me down; they’re like, ‘Hey, this major you’re going to want to take these classes first’ and I had an advisor too. But it’s a little easier when they’re on the team and you can talk to them here and there and so I think that’s awesome.

And just to clarify, was the person in athletics that’s connected with your team is that through their academic support department that you have?

Kareem: Yes, it is because they also teach here; they’re also a professor so they have their side and they just work with our team and one of the spring teams I don’t remember what team it is it’s another men’s team we have here it might be lacrosse but I’m not sure.

Interviewer: Okay, yeah, I don’t know if you knew this about me that’s the first job I had was at the University of Vermont and it was in the student athlete development team and so we kind of spread the caseload out, and we had a faculty liaison. But it’s nice they had it; sounds like he or she has two teams, and we had kind of a small staff, so it’s like seven or eight teams, and the only way it worked is because a lot of kids were self-sufficient, and I didn’t even have to work with them. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. So, no, it’s good to just understand you got like upperclassmen admins in athletics, you also have an advisor on campus somewhere, typically it’s like within the econ school.

Kareem: Exactly, and so we had to pick our advisor for like the courses or whatever, and before you register for classes, you have to meet with them and show them your plan. I think only sophomores had to do this, but they had to go through and show them like I had to show them my plan for the next three years, basically sophomore, junior, and senior year, just so that they make sure I’m filling all the requirements.

Interviewer: I remember those lists, yeah it’s like you map it out which is good. And then of course you have conflicts with practice schedule and you still got to work around it. And again D1, D2, D3, all college level, it’s just that struggle to balance like those schedules which I think is good to point out. Okay cool so you get to campus, you’re settled now for sure which is good, I’d love to learn just about the community there.

What’s it like living in New London? I noticed, just looking it up, it’s close to like a bunch of major areas-you got Providence, it’s not super far from New York City.

Kareem: We are in downtown New London quite a bit. But the nicest part about being at Conn is the beach. We’re 10-15 minutes away from the beach, and whether it’s a whole school thing or just our grade or our teammates, we just head down to the beach and literally just hang out, get some color, and just relax for the afternoon, and then we just go to the beach and just relax for an afternoon or whatever it may be, and we probably do that twice a week in the fall and spring so that’s nice. We went to New York City a couple times; the train is right here in New London, the Amtrak, so we take that right into New York City. We went to Boston a couple times too, which is nice. We got to go around Newport and did like a boat day or whatever, so like there’s a lot to do and we’re in we’re right in the middle of everything, which is nice, yeah.

Interviewer: So classic New England.

Did I ask where you’re from?

Kareem: Right outside of DC in Northern Virginia.

Interviewer: Oh what town? I lived there for a little while.

Kareem: McLean Tyson’s area.

Interviewer: Oh nice, I worked in Roslynn.

Kareem: Oh, cool!

Interviewer: Yeah, so super familiar and you got Georgetown and like a bunch of schools right there.

And it’s not super removed from New England, but was the culture different for you going to Connecticut or were you familiar with the area a little bit?

Kareem: Like I was used to, obviously going to the city is a different story; but being here at Conn is a little bit different than like the high-rise DC culture and like that sort of fast-paced environment. Whereas here, like people are a little more relaxed and that’s why I liked being at Tuck and Dartmouth for Bridge and Conn is just because it’s a little more relaxed, and you get to sort of be in nature and go for a hike go down to the river, like whatever it may be. I like that aspect of things, and I feel like we have that here at Conn, we’re right by the Coast Guard Academy is across the street so not many people have boats but if you make friends with someone who has a boat, it’s really nice because you get to go out on the water and do that.

Interviewer: Yeah, you gotta work that out. I’ll say,, I had some family in Connecticut and the beaches are definitely underrated. Yeah, it’s funny to bring up the boat, I talked to a student from UMiami for this project too and a little different in terms of Miami versus Connecticut Beach wise. But no, that sounds super fun. And you can kind of duck in and out of all these little towns in New England on the water, which is amazing.

Last question about the community: so you mentioned the beach, is there a favorite place on campus that people hang out a lot?

Kareem: We had like a campus, and you may have to edit this, but we had like a campus bar here on campus and they are now renovating it and it’s going to be a rooftop which is nice, that way everyone can just stay on campus over the weekend and hang out here rather than going off campus and ubering and doing all that sort of stuff. But other than that, my favorite spot on campus would probably be our campus green, which is just a huge field, probably a size of two to three football fields, and there’s classes and dorms all around it just hang out, play spike ball, just chill for the day so that’s nice, yeah, it’s a we just throw in there that.

Interviewer: Bars are for 21+, we’ll toss it in for good mesaure, but it seems to be growing in popularity because I just talked to a student from Hamilton, same thing. There’s this bar that everyone goes to after mixers, and it’s part of its it’s a very informal way of networking-another way to put it. So, yeah, part of college life; you can do it responsibly, but the fact that it’s on campus is so cool. I did not have that in undergrad, not that it wasn’t accessible, but I think just embracing it and doing it in a safe way it just brings the community together, and even another way which is super cool, cheaper, safer, and it’s really just people from your school, which is nice.

How big is Connecticut College?

Kareem: Like a few thousand, yeah, like 22-2500 something like that. They’re trying to to get larger class sizes and have more people live off campus in New London, like I just got approved to live in an apartment next year so I’ll be living off campus. And I guess that’s their way of making space on campus to have more people.

Interviewer: Yeah, for sure, that’s one of the biggest challenges in higher ed in general is real estate and just space for students and we kind of talked about Bridge at Tuck but one thing limiting our enrollment is just space and dorms so we’re looking at that as a project moving forward and hopefully we can figure it out. But yeah a lot of schools there are some small schools you’ve probably seen that are shutting down because they can’t figure out income and revenue and dorms and that kind of thing.

Is 2200 students like a DMV high school in terms of size?

Kareem: I went to a smaller school and mine probably had 600 but a like a larger public school has about 1500 so it really is just a very large high school.

Interviewer: Because there’s so many good schools, like private and public, around the DC area and kind of a hub for careers as well, which we’ll touch on as well with that, but no, I think that’s a good sense of just the community and that kind of thing. So just looking kind of at curriculum, I know econ’s really popular and again bringing it up, it’s like half of our enrollment are econ majors, as you found out.

What kind of pushed you toward Econ? Was it something you took in high school or did you just always know you wanted to study Econ?

Kareem: Well, coming into college, I had met a lot of people who worked in investment banking, and the year I guess for a lot of people, the first thing you see is the dollar figure you can make in banking. And I think that’s kind of what you’re looking for in the world, and so I was like, ‘Hey, I want to be an investment banker.’ What can I do class-wise to put me in the best spot for that? And it was econ; we don’t have a finance major, so econ made the most sense for me. Okay, that makes sense. And then there’s also flexibility because there’s so many skills and topics that you cover, and I think it gives you access to things on the investment banking club side or internships.

Interviewer: So what internships have you done and how have you fit that into your schedule as a student athlete?

Kareem: Yeah, I was at the University of Kuwait my first year. After that semester, I did I was on the defense team and that was great. I went back to school; it’s like, hey, I need something more tailored to investment banking, and couldn’t really find anything in that field, so I ended up doing wealth management in New York City, North Star Wealth Investors; the MD there is actually a Conn alum, so that was super helpful. And while I was doing all this, I started a hockey league out in Reston, Virginia, and that slowly grew. And I continued to do that, and so I went to talk to my business partner, who was back home, and while I was at the talk, he was running it and just continued to grow, so I currently no longer want to do investment banking and I’m going to pursue that full-time after I graduate. We’re at about 300 kids so far, and our camp is in year four; we have two weeks of camp, both of which are at like 85 kids in each week, so that’s been great.

Interviewer: That is awesome. So you’ve made your own job for post-grad, you hired yourself essentially, that’s so cool! Well, I’m gonna, so when we shift to the professional side, which we can for sure.

I just wanted one specific question on how the internship thing happened with that Conn alum. Was that like through a career fair or through handshake or through the school or did you just look for it on your own?

Kareem: So, it was on LinkedIn. He had posted the opening; he had two interns and needed one more. Someone I met at Conn had interned with him the summer before and they loved it. And so, I applied on LinkedIn. Didn’t hear back, found his email, just emailed them as like ‘Hey, I’m a student athlete at Connn. I would love to just have a conversation about how I can help you.’ We jumped on a Zoom call, and it worked out from there. And I was in New York City, and he’s super Helpful, it was great.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s perfect, that’s the reason I ask because students are always wondering: okay, was it networking? Was it outreach? And it sounds like it was both in a way, and again you’re kind of leaning on the status of student athlete. We have a connection at the college and it’s so difficult like you could find something on LinkedIn and just click that apply button and I think a lot of students can see the like a thousand people click to apply or something and it’s just hard to stand out, so that extra step is really important and yeah I’m glad I asked, I’m glad you emphasized that but yeah so tons of experiences so far. And you’re trying things that you think you’re interested in, you know you are on the IB track, and then it shifts all of a sudden. I would love to hear about the professional side and kind of shifting into this hockey league. I know Reston; I was looking at apartments there when I came out of grad school and my wife and I ended up just right on Capitol Hill which is really fun too. But your own businesses, I think this might be the first like entrepreneurship interviewee I’ve had –

I’d love to hear just how you got into it. Obviously it’s based in an interest you have; you’ve probably played hockey your whole life but eah how did you find a business partner and start this company?

Kareem: So he’s actually at Yale now, he plays hockey there, and him and I have been best friends for a long time now, six, seven, eight years. And after my first year at that spring, I was like, ‘Hey, there’s way too many good hockey players in the DMV area, and we need to find a way to get everyone in the same spot. What do you guys like to do? What do they want to do over the summer or whatever? And we’re like, ‘Everyone loves playing three on three; you get a good sweat, you are with your buddies.’ So we literally just play cross-ice on both ends of the ice; we put pads across the blue lines if you’re familiar with the rink yeah we just play there’s six skaters and one goalie on each team and we just played and we asked players in the area to join. It ended up that everyone who played with us played NHL, junior hockey, or inn college and it worked out great for our first summer and so from there were were like what do we do now to expand like we’ll do one week of camp and we’ll also add a youth division for the younger guys youth division filled up and so did the camp and now this summer we have two weeks of camp, tournament teams we have four tournament teams the youth division and the division so sort of all over the place.

Interviewer: That’s really cool, so are you going to play and manage it?

Kareem: Yeah I’m going to play this, this is my last summer playing really because I’ll be a senior next year, I’m not going to want to play after that and I’ll just be coaching the tournament teams and then the youth division same thing but with the pro division I’ll be playing in it and it’s funny I own it and I’m probably one of the worst players in it which is funny because most of the players there play division one or pro or whatever it may be.

Interviewer: Yeah it’s got to be fun too because you’ve just created a community within a space you love and get access to these guys, that it’s just, it’s even going to make you better, and you’re also generating revenue from it, which is so cool.

What else is kind of going into the business model is there, it sounds like it’s mostly tournament-focused, maybe in the youth in the youth leagues might expand on like programming and training and that kind of stuff? But I mean Yale and Connecticut College two college athletes, that’s a great marketing scheme as well. Do you have a vision kind of moving forward?

Kareem: Yeah, our goal for next year is to have five weeks of camp and have that be sold out at 85 kids as well, our goal long term and this is years from now is to own a gym and I see that with owning a rink as well, having the gym inside of that rink and running all of our stuff out of there and obviously renting out ice and doing it from that side,

Interviewer: Yeah that’s so cool and I think another cool part about just owning your own business or whatever it’s a lot of students through my position or they want to meet people in my network they ask about career opportunities and you have the benefit of having some internship experience doing the Bridge Program and you’ve learned about all these different industries you could literally think of something in two minutes based on your interest and turn it into a business, a very successful one for sure. And I can only imagine the families that you’re meeting too, the parents and the positions they hold, and the people that you’re meeting, and what they do in the community in that area.

But I didn’t even know hockey was that big in the DC area has that always been a thing?

Kareem: It’s really not, and that’s why we’ve been able to sort of take over that market is because it’s not that big and so therefore there’s not many camps operating or leagues that are working out of there so we were able to get everyone that needs a place to play and so we were able to take it over because there’s not a huge market for it if that makes any sense the other thing I’d like to mention is looking at the internships I’ve done whether that be the wealth management or at the embassy I’ve taken the skills I’ve learned there and use it to our advantage so an example of this whether we do it or not is that I was at a wealth management firm I worked with bonds I worked with stocks and the excess cash we have right now with our league is being put into those securities and bonds or whatever it may be so everything I’ve done has helped me with what I’m doing right now and the next step is learning how to spreadsheet model and model into the future, and sort of figure that side of it out.

Interviewer: Yeah so just bringing home on the fact that it’s a legit business and you have those skills.

So how has that shifted your focus going into senior year of what you’re going to study obviously you have required classes and whatnot but um are you seeking out anything that’s going to support your growth in that business?

Kareem: Yeah, we have a spreadsheet modeling course at Conn that I would like to take; I took one at the Business Bridge Program as well which was super helpful, but the biggest thing that I’ve noticed right now is a lot of my time more of my time is going into the the league and that business I have rather than the classes I’m taking right now, just because of the time I’m on the phone and speaking with parents and getting registration set up dealing with the rink. So my classes are helping me with it but I’m spending more time on it than I am my classes. I

Interviewer: With hockey, what’s the training look like? I guess specifically to the DMV area, what’s training over the summer typically look like if you don’t have a league like this?

Kareem: You don’t have a league, it’s you’re on for hockey itself; you’re on the ice less than you are in the gym. So, you’re probably on the ice two to three days a week but you are in the gym lifting Monday through Saturday, usually taking Sunday off to recover. But especially with college hockey with how physical it is, the only way you can keep up is to be in the gym and get strong and be in shape and do it that way or else you’re just going to get hurt or not be able to compete at the college level, so you want you want to be on the ice enough so that you’re not losing your skills and you’re sort of growing in that sense, but you don’t need to be in peak on-ice conditioning going into the season because that’s what training camp is for.

Interviewer: Yeah, it’s another reason I ask: hockey’s been so interesting to learn a bit about with how spread out the opportunities are for different leagues at different ages and what recruiting looks like compared to basketball. You’re playing all summer baseball; you’re playing all summer, that’s where you get a lot of exposure outside of your college season. And so, it’s again, it’s just interesting that it’s so different for hockey. And I think, like you’re saying where you can make the most of a space have two games going on at one time and just develop certain skills that you don’t necessarily be developing in a full-size game. I think that’s really cool, so no, that’s awesome. And we just got our 10-minute warning; we have plenty of time, but just wanted to bring it back to Connecticut College, and I think it’s exciting that you’re kind of trying to manage this business and finish out undergrad, and it’s got to be a confusing thing-it’s like, I can go just do this business full-time. It’s also still important to get a degree, at least in my opinion.

But let’s end with my last question from every interview, do you have one tip for making the most of undergrad?

Kareem: Yeah, I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is to make friends outside of your team if you’re on a sports team. So, I love my teammates and I’m with them all the time, but it’s been very nice for me to have friends outside of the teams just so that I can sort of separate myself from being at different interests. I’ve sort of learned new things just from being with them, and I think it’s important to do that. I also think you need to try new things like I did. To be honest, I wasn’t a beach guy, but I like going to the beach now. I didn’t like going on walks and walking through nature, but I like doing that now. So, there’s a lot that you can you sort of learn as you go, uh, just from trying new things, and Khan definitely has a lot to offer from that side of it. Yeah, that’s great advice, and um, I remember it being difficult. I remember it being difficult, and I remember it being difficult to access outdoor stuff in the DC area.

Interviewer: Yeah, it’s nice you’ve had access to that, and that’s typically my last question, but I wanted to give you one last chance to shout out the name of your company just in case this interview blows up.

Kareem: Yeah, DMV Threes, and that stands for DC, Maryland, Virginia, Threes, just because we play three on three cross ice.

Interviewer: Oh that’s so cool. Well, thank you so much for your time!

Kareem: Thank you!