STEPHON SINGLETON
By Ciana Bowers
When you’re in school, take advantage of all the opportunities that you have. Build a network and always have forward thinking. Understand what you want to do in life and try your best to learn about the field you are studying. Experience is the best teacher, and learning what you don’t like is just as important as learning what you do like.
This is advice from Alumni Stephon Singleton, who graduated from Widener in 2014 with a degree in Business Human resources. Singleton now owns his own sports training business.
Singleton played football here at Widener and was also a part of the black student union. He had a good time at Widener University, has some great teachers, met some lifetime friends and even helped take his team to MAC championships his junior year. “If I had a chance to do it all over again I would.” said Singleton
When Singleton graduated independence blue cross employed him to work for them full time. He worked there throughout his years at Widener as an intern. Like many college students, Singleton didn’t know what he wanted to do when he came to college. “I was really torn about what I should do. So I just started taking business classes to fill everything out.” Eventually Singleton decided to major in Physical therapy but quickly realized business was for him “It made more sense to stick with business because I had the internship at blue cross.”
Eventually Singleton ended up picking up his stuff, drove to LA and took a couple of odd jobs to maintain and make some money. That’s when he realized that being in the office environment was not what he wanted to do. “A guy at the office told me I should take on personal training, but my thing was business.” Like many college graduates, Singleton was worried about a career switch he didn’t see why he should pursue something that wasn’t in the major he studied. But while in LA, Singleton studied to get his certification and started working in a gym called Equinox. It was then Singleton realized that working out doesn’t seem like a job to him, and if he can help people train while using his business skills to start his own personal training business, it was the perfect marriage of the two.
What made Singleton interested in training was his football career at Widener. During his senior year he tore a muscle his last game which hindered his chances to do anything to further his football career. He stopped working out and became very depressed. “I felt like I didn’t need to get ready for anything anymore since I stopped playing football I had no purpose.” He quickly realized that working out is a lifestyle, and it’s more than sports. While Singleton was working out that was he felt his best. “Everybody should be there best self.”
His beliefs in making everybody their best self turned his 76-year-old client into her healthier self. While under his training her balance got better, she got healthier, and she got stronger. It was easier for her to do everyday things such as picking things up, sitting on the couch and putting groceries away. A football client he had, gone from having no confidence in himself to being able to make tackles, score points and grow in self-confidence. “He grew so much that his family didn’t recognize who they were watching.” Through word of mouth, social media, and friends from his time at Equinox, Singleton could build his clients and live out his dream of marrying sports and his business studies from Widener University.
Singleton and partner are now located back in Philadelphia and work in training basketball, football and sports performance. Singleton is working on owning a gym and is releasing a fitness app this February called wellfit360 that will have programmed workouts, nutrition tips, and help build a fitness community.