USF Athletics

First Year of USF Student-Athlete Leadership Academy a Success

June 24, 2019

By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
 
TAMPA, JUNE 24, 2019 – USF Athletics makes preparing student-athletes for life a major priority through its Student-Athlete Enhancement programs and the Selmon Mentoring Institute.
 
Now the Bulls have another avenue for student-athletes to take in order to enhance their leadership skills. The USF Student-Athlete Leadership Academy helps student-athletes positively impact their peers during competition as well as in the classroom and community.
 
The 2018-19 academic year proved to be a successful start for the USF Student-Athlete Leadership Academy, a yearlong program covering important aspects of leadership like self-reflection, emotional intelligence, building communication skills, conflict management and accountability.
 
Assistant Director for Student-Athlete Enhancement Tayler Onion is the director of USF's newest student-athlete enhancement program and said it provides the Bulls with another way to grow as people.
 
"In a lot of the other programming we have, student-athletes can innately pick up leadership skills," Onion said. "This is a space where we are intentionally talking about leadership and how your actions impact others."
 
The Academy's cohort for its first year consisted of 14 Bulls recommended by Student-Athlete Enhancement, head coaches, academic advisors, and administrators.
 
"People in the department who have a lot of touchpoints with student-athletes helped us to identify candidates for the inaugural cohort," said Onion of the first class that ranged from sophomores to seniors.
 
The inaugural class included sophomore offensive lineman Jean Marcellus and senior Riley Sheehan (SAAC Co-President) from head coach Charlie Strong's football team along with Carson Ragsdale (baseball), Brooke Leistl (softball), Claire Embry (SAAC officer, volleyball), Nyemba Musemuna (volleyball), Diane Burress (women's golf), Natalia Villavicencio (women's golf), Ashley Wilson (SAAC Co-President, track and field), Vanja Klaric (women's tennis), Olivia Balistreri (sailing), Emilio Ycaza (men's soccer), Harrison Devenish-Meares (men's soccer) and Rania Samhouri (cross country/track and field).
 
That impressive group of student-athletes strengthened their leadership skills during nearly 10 learning sessions at the Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center in the fall and spring semesters, with each lasting at least an hour.
 
"As the student-athletes got more comfortable around each other, some of the ones who were usually more reserved started to blossom throughout the year," Onion said. "That was really neat to see."
 
The schedule of events culminated with the 2019 Leadership Summit in March, which the student-athletes in the Academy facilitated for their peers. Emotional intelligence, communication and conflict management were the topics at the forefront of the Summit. More than 30 student-athletes attended, and the cohort had an opportunity to test out their skills on members of USF Athletics staff prior to the Summit.
  
"Each group got to create their own activities and present key points they took away from things we did in the actual Academy during the fall and spring," Onion said.
 
Year 1 of the Academy experience also served as an opportunity to fine-tune the program thanks to constant dialogue between student-athletes and the Enhancing U staff throughout the academic year.
 
"One of the things we were vocal with them about was letting us know what they got out of each session," Onion said. "They were great about providing feedback as we went along and they laid a great foundation for the future."
 
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics sponsors 19 varsity men's and women's teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls' athletic program began in 1965 and is in its 53^rd season in 2018-19. Nearly 500 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 18 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, and own 119 conference titles overall. Nine USF programs reached national post-season competition in the 2017-18 season and six were ranked in the Top 25 nationally. The Bulls posted a combined annual grade-point average over 3.0 for the third straight year in 2017-18 and have posted a program record eight straight semesters with a combined GPA over 3.0. USF has had more than 250 student-athletes earn their degree in the last three years.
 
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