News
Student-athletes meet for three days, discuss leadership and communication on and off the field
By Ben Katz ’20
September 8, 2016
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From Aug. 21-23, nearly a week before the start of regularly scheduled classes, 60 Hamilton varsity student-athletes gathered on campus for a special Leadership Academy. Run by the Department of Athletics and the Department of Physical Education, the Leadership Academy program was spearheaded by Associate Director of Athletics Angel Mason, who is beginning her third year at Hamilton, and the other members of the Hamilton Athletics Leadership Committee.
The program was administered by Jennifer Baker, Associate Director of Athletics at Cornell University and Director of the Big Red Leadership Institute. The program at Hamilton was also co-led by Christine Cooper, Professor of Chemistry at the United States Naval Academy and a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. The Big Red Leadership Institute at Cornell functions to “empower our student-athletes to confidently assume roles as both team leaders and teammates, for the betterment of their Big Red teams, the Cornell community and their lives beyond the Hill.”
Similarly, the program at Hamilton, according to Associate Director Mason, was created “to provide student athletes with leadership skill within their programs, around campus and in their future endeavours.” Three main themes guided the three-day-long program: loyalty, the importance of core team values and how to take action as a leader. The Academy leaders presented each theme before the student-athletes broke into smaller groups to discuss what they had learned. Students also completed individual assignments between the sessions. On the last day, students came back together with their teammates to work on crafting goals they could implement during the athletic season.
Mason, who played Division I basketball at Butler University in Indiana, benefited from a similar program during her collegiate years. Having recognized the advantages that participating in such a program yields, she was eager to help implement the program at Hamilton. In addition, according to Mason, “the program was implemented because of the desires of previous student-athletes, direction from Athletic Director Jon Hind and to address the unique challenges that come with being a part of a team.”
Similar programs have long existed at other colleges. Mason, when asked about the role of programs at other schools, said, “Many other schools have leadership academies, institutes, etc. Some schools have just one program. A lot of Division I programs have this same information through a special program call “CHAMPS Life Skills” and the NCAA has a leadership forum that brings together athletes from all three divisions.” Mason also remarked that these programs exist at schools considered to be Hamilton’s academic and athletic peers, noting that “Other schools within the NESCAC have been doing programming such as this for a few years now. We also sent students to this type of leadership training when I was at Vassar College.”
The effects of the Leadership Academy will reverberate far past the three late summer days the Academy spanned, and far past the playing fields and locker rooms in which student-athletes spend much of their days.
Associate Director Mason is confident that “Student-athletes will benefit, but the community as a whole will benefit most. They have been given tools to better understand themselves and others, how they communicate, different ways in which to lead from where you are, dealing with difficult conversations, etc. These things will help them be better community members on our Hill.” Thanks to the amount of time and commitment that Hamilton staff put into developing and running it, the program promises to be a success.