INITIAL INSIGHT

 

History:

 

In September of 2013, I started my volunteer coaching with the track and field team at a local university. Coincidentally, that is the same time that I started my classes and course work to pursue my Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University. I was involved more as an assistant and was willing to help out wherever needed. As time went on, I learned more about my own leadership abilities and developed this with the course work that I was learning through Gonzaga University. I also found myself more invested in the performance and overall well-being of the athletes that I worked with as I learned more about them and found myself in a leadership position with them. Ultimately, as I became more involved with my degree at Gonzaga, I became more involved with the athletes that I volunteered with. What started out as an opportunity to get involved with a local team of athletes provided a growth experience that allowed me to personally learn more about how to connect with people, serve others, and help find ways to develop their lives beyond their time on the track.

 

As a way to give back to the athletes and help them develop, I wanted to become more invested in their lives as a mentor beyond the coaching that I provided on the track. I had a core group of athletes that I worked with, as my efforts were primarily focused on athletes involved in the hurdles and the steeplechase. I started to have discussions after practice with these athletes to help them think about what they wanted to accomplish as a team and as individuals. This included a thought process on their goals, their motivations, and what they hoped to accomplish before graduating that they could take with them into their careers. Even at a liberal arts college, these students get exposed to many different subjects and ideas, but not many of them have the opportunity to take a leadership course and learn about how they can develop their own skills for use in their own future careers.

 

As I got more involved, I implemented many different ideas and interactions to help these athletes and started a discussion group that I met with about once every two weeks to help discuss leadership ideas and give them interactive exercises to help implement leadership tactics into their own lives. I used what I learned in my classes to educate the athletes and give them an interactive way of understanding how they can use and develop their own leadership skills. Lastly, I decided to create a leadership guide for each of the athletes to take with them so that they can reference their leadership skills for the future. Below is an outline of discussions and projects that I had with 10-15 athletes, that shows the depth of ideas that we spoke on and the topics that we covered to focus on character, leadership, goals, and values.

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Preview:

 

In the tabs above within my Leadership Project, I outline each discussion had and the ultimately the outcomes of this research project. Each tab will give insight to not only a new discussion, but the skills utilized and the competencies touched on for student development. Lastly, I provide a recap tab to cover the goals achieved, the overall outcomes, and future goals for this type of work.