Strategies advisors can use to help studentathletes successfully navigate the college experience: Fr

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Strategies advisors can use to help
student-athletes successfully navigate the
college experience From orientation to
graduation and beyond
PresentersDr. Adrienne Leslie-Toogood,
Canadian Sport Centre ManitobaDr. Emmett Gill,
Rutgers University
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• CASE 1
• What is your role as an academic advisor?
• Which issue would you address first? Why? How?
• How would you engage Felecia in this process?
• Would you involve Felecias parents and coaches?
  If so, are there any legal or ethical
  considerations?

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One thing I have learned in this business is
that you cannot change or undo behavior that has
been in existence for 18 and 20 years. You have
to work with that student and find out how they
learn best. Realizing that some things stay in
your office and other things dont but you make
that clear to the student. Gill, 2005
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TOPICS
A. Check-in With YourselfB. Intercollegiate
Sport CultureC. Sport Infrastructure on Your
CampusD. Know the Student-Athlete
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A. Check-In With Yourself

• Do you take the time to get to know the role
  sport plays in this students life?
• Do you talk to student athletes about their
  transition to your campus and how sport might
  impact this transition process?
• Do you treat student-athletes like any other
  student that you meet, without asking them about
  their sport?
• Do you challenge student-athletes in the same way
  as other students with respect to academic and
  career goals?

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B. Intercollegiate Sport Culture

• Academic Athletic Tension
• Commercialism
• Empowerment
• Academic Reform
• Subculture

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B. Intercollegiate Sport Culture

• PRACTICE WISDOMAcademic Reform
• speak with your student-athlete advisees
• visit the athletic department website
• schedule a time to visit the academic centre

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B. Intercollegiate Sport Culture

• Student-Athlete Continuing Eligibility
• Bylaw 23.2.1.1
• Academic Progress Rate (APR) measures academic
  performance for all sports teams on a
  term-by-term basis and penalties for teams that
  to no perform according to the APR

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• CASE 2
• Develop three creative ways to assist Matt with
  his writing skills?
• How might NCAA and other eligibility requirements
  impact Matt?
• Would you encourage Matt to be tested for
  learning disabilities? If so, how would you
  approach Matt about this and explain the benefits
  of testing?

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B. Intercollegiate Sport Culture

• Athletic Department Infrastructure
• Director of Student-Athlete Services
• Academic Advisor
• Director of Athletics
• Faculty Athletic Representative
• CHAMPS Life Skills Coordinator
• Athletic Administration Academic Reform
• Athletic Trainers
• Learning Specialists

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B. Intercollegiate Sport Culture

• Acclimating Yourself to Athletes
• visit the official school website
• visit a practice from start to finish
• estimate the time it takes to prepare for
  practice and cool down from practices (travel
  time!!!)
• have lunch with associated head coach or
  athletics operations director

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C. Sport Infrastructure on Your Campus

• Gruber suggests ways to find out about the
  culture of athletics on your campus
• Evaluate the mission of the athletic department
• Speak with the faculty athletic representative
  on your campus
• Explore the historical content of the athletic
  department
• Determine the reporting lines
• Review NCAA certification reports
• Review presidential reports
• Find athletics department strategic plan

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C. Sport Infrastructure on Your Campus
Levels of Athletics 1. Division One 2. Division
Three
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• CASE 3
• What can you do to improve the student-athletes
  sense of community at the school?
• Given the infancy of MSL and the reality soccer
  players can now leave school early
• What would you do to best serve the athlete?

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D. Know the student-athlete
Definitelyyour athletes have to be able to feel
like they can go in sit down and talk to you and
not be judgedso however you do that, thats
gotta happen. Toogood et al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete

• Athletic identity
• Role Conflict
• Academic self-concept
• Career decision-making
• Managing multiple relationships
• School selection

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D. Know the student-athlete

• Transition to campus
• Mental Health
• Learning Disabilities
• Minority and International Student-Athletes
• Sexuality

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D. Know the student-athlete
Being an athlete gives you a sense of popularity
and it makes you standout, cut in fact it puts
more pressure on you because people have a
stereotype of what an athlete is supposed to be.
If its a male athlete, they are supposed to be
a ladies man, strong, and dont show any
emotions. So they have to put on a façade
oftentimes to hold up this image. Toogood et
al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete
Strictly youre in school to play football,
play basketball, run track or your motive
youre just in class to pass. Not really
learning. I think thats the athletic stereotype
or the fact you always get the breaks, youll be
able to come to class late and you wont get the
same punishment as the other students. Toogood
et al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete
Student-Athlete Commitment Typology
Athletic Role High
Low
High
Academic Role
Low
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D. Know the student-athlete
Oh it made me learn how to deal with
disappointment and then how to deal with good
things but yet, in a respectable and a reasonable
manner you cant go around yelling and screaming
stuff like that. It really teaches you how to
control your emotion and just with your teammates
and stuff you need to, I mean its really good
cause you need to kind of vent out your emotions
too you cant keep it bottled in and its easy to
do that because theyre likely going through the
same thing, you know so its really easy to talk
to the person about it. Toogood et al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete
However, unlike the general college student,
student athletes must also deal with issues that
pertain to balancing academics and athletics
social isolation athletic success and failure
the expectations of coaches, parents, and the
community and injury or loss of athletic careers
(Parham, 1993). Because of these additional
stressors, the student athlete sometimes has
difficulty focusing clearly or moving quickly
toward academic and career goals. (Gruber,
p.47)
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A. Check-In With Yourself

• Do you try to ignore or minimize their roles as
  student-athletes?
• Do you speak with student-athletes about a game,
  or are you more likely to speak with them about a
  game if they won or played well?
• Do you think about the other roles
  student-athletes aim to fulfill outside of
  academics and athletics?

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMCareer decision-making
• clustering student-athletes in particular
  majors
• do not discourage student-athletes from pursuing
  majors related to sport
• help build confidence to validate sport-related
  interest
• lead them to leadership positions

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOM
• Career decision-making
• Krumboltz social learning theory of career
  decision-making
• acknowledge possible fear of getting started in
  the career search process
• discuss positive ways chance events have
  impacted their life
• time constraints

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMCareer decision-making
• timing is crucial when advising about careers
• during the sophomore year is a good rule of
  thumb
• discuss career options as well as relationship
  between coursework and careers

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D. Know the student-athlete
Yes of course. Black athlete he is not going to
be smart, I took classes with people I knew I was
smarter than but they still think they were
smarter than me. We would do assignments
together they sometimes wouldnt let me put my
say because they felt like I didnt know what I
was doing but at the end we found out it was
wrong and maybe my way was right. Toogood et
al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMManaging multiple relationships
• dual roles peers and fans
• encourage student to attend group work sessions
• engage in conversations
• speak to non student-athlete advisee

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• CASE 4
• How can you help Marcus manage his time so that
  he can earmark time to spend with his son?
• What other ideas would you share with Marcus
  regarding activities for his family?
• What community and university resources can help
  Marcus in this situation?

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D. Know the student-athlete
I think that college is a very confusing time
for most people so I think its important to have
people who are kind of the voice of reason.
Toogood et al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete
I think, sometimes coaches get so in depth about
just the athletic part of it that they forget to
ask, you know just everyday stuff like, how you
doing, hows school going, hows is everybody
mentally ok today? You know like, because theres
a lot of things you go through that have nothing
to do with basketball you know?. Toogood et
al., 2005
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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMTransition to campus
• Pre-transition (enhancement)
• Transition (support)
• 3. Post-transition (counseling)

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D. Know the student-athlete
I would say it was a high, quite high like on a
mountain top and then the very lowest deepest
abyss of the valley.
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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMMental Health
• - use injury as an opportunity to expand identity
• - help avoid self-defeating thought and behaviors
• - explore other roles and responsibilities

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMLearning Disabilities
• student-athletes with learning disabilities are
  outstanding athletes, possessing strong
  leadership skills
• leadership skills should be nurtured
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMMinority and International
  Student-Athletes
• - get student-athletes to learn more about you
• share your life history and personal interests
• identify common interests

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D. Know the student-athlete

• PRACTICE WISDOMSexuality
• Encourage enrollment and engage in classes that
  teach diversity
• think outside the box
• willing to explore alternative views and views
  of others
• need to expand horizons

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D. Know the student-athlete

• Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS)
• Asks student-athletes to note their level of
  agreement with the following statements
• I consider myself an athlete
• I have many goals related to sport
• Most of my friends are athletes
• Sport in the most important part of my life
• I spend more time thinking about sport than
  anything else
• I need to participate in sport to feel good
  about myself
• Other people see me mainly as an athlete
• I feel bad about myself when I do poorly in sport
• Sport is the only important thing in my life
• I would be very depressed if I were injured and
  could not participate in sport

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D. Know the student-athlete

• Learning Styles
• Linguistic
• Logical
• Spatial
• Musical
• Bodily
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

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D. Know the student-athlete

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator TestIdentifies your
  personality preferences
• Favorite World Extraversion vs. Introversion
• Information Sensing vs. Intuition
• Decisions Thinking vs. Feeling
• Structure Judging vs. Perceiving

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D. Know the student-athlete

• Successful Students Athlete Development
• Time
• Team Membership
• Campus Involvement
• Well-being and growth

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• CASE STUDY APPLICATION
• Larger contextual issues related to
  intercollegiate sport
• Unique elements on your particular campus
• Individual realities within the student-athlete
  culture
• Inclusion in one or more sub-populations or
  groupings

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• CONCLUSION
• To the individual they advise- How might being
  a student-athlete impact this students
  experience on my campus
• - What can I do to learn about the impact of
  sport on this students life?

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CONCLUSION 2. For involving others- Who are
the important people in this student-athletes
life (both academic and athletic)? - How can I
build relationships with these people? - What
are the barrier to developing these relationships
and how can they be overcome?
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CONCLUSION 3. To their institutions- How can
our campus best respond to the unique needs of
student-athletes on our campus? - What type of
collaborative training and programming is need to
make this happen?
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CONCLUSION 4. To higher education- What needs
to be done to ensure that student-athletes on our
campus are having their educational and career
needs met? - What is the campus responsibility
for all student-athletes admitted to our
campus?
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CONCLUSION 5. To their educational community-
How can we help student-athletes to benefit from
out-of-classroom learning (such as service
learning, internships, and practica), even in
consideration of their hectic schedules/
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CONCLUSION 6. For themselves and their
professional practice- What training should I
engage in to help me learn more about the
student-athlete population?- Are there any
professional associations that I would like to
create a relationship with?- What thoughts and
ideas can I bring back to my department and
campus?- What daily or weekly activities can I
engage in to help update me on the status of
sports and sports team on my campus?