Year One

My first taste of working within college athletics came this previous academic year ('23-'24) working in the LAKER Academic Success Center. During my first year here, I was fortunate enough to be a graduate assistant under the great leadership and guidance from the Center's Director, Myesha Gholston. I cannot express how easy Myesha makes it to show up to work with her infectious smile and motivating personality. I am very thankful for her providing this opportunity to me shortly after I became the "squeaky wheel" that kept emailing her asking to pick her brain about education within athletics at the college level. Not only did she let me interrogate her for close to an hour -- she offered me the assistantship I am writing about! The Center is relatively new/renovated and looks gorgeous. It certainly provides a great space not only for me and the staff, but the student-athletes who enter looking for support. Not many DII schools have academic departments solely for their athletes. Those that do certainly do not have the staff, nor the gorgeous and new space that Grand Valley does. This is further testament to the standard of excellence at Grand Valley both athletically and academically.

At the beginning of my time in LAKER Academic Success Center, there was a need for me to adjust and develop certain skills intentionally to best serve this particular population of student-athletes. While my primary role year one was to send weekly reports to coaches recapping their student-athletes' meetings with advisors, I would often shadow and contribute to advising appointments, aided the development of academic skills such as time management when situationally needed, and sort of served as a liaison for student-athletes to connect with Disability Support Resources (DSR) given my role as a Graduate Assistant there during the same time. It was largely a learning process of becoming acquainted with the systems, structures, and strategies of the office. Every Friday, I looked forward to the opportunity to contribute to our weekly staff meetings as much as I could as a "newbie". Though I was late to joining the Center, I am very fortunate with the responsibilities provided to me by Ms. Gholston to interact directly with student-athletes, offer hands-on support, and work to the goal of the office to help student-athletes reach their full potential as students, as athletes, and as individuals (LAKER). I enjoyed being able to serve the student-athletes at the institution I love. Fortunately, most of my athlete friends have graduated so I won't have to cross the bridge of maintaining that personal and professional boundary.

I am enthusiastically counting down the time for my return to the LAKER Academic Success Center this coming August 2024. The opportunity to bridge the two passions I repeatedly talk about (collegiate athletics and education) is a blessing to me personally and for my development as a professional. This population of elite athletes excel in every sport GVSU has to offer as a team and individually and I am blessed to continually learn how to best serve them to succeed in the classroom. From a personal level, Grand Valley is poised to have another succesful season. As Joe Paterno would say though, "Potential is on paper". Professionally, it will be very excited to watchg my students compete on the gridiron and court. I'm excited to be able to alleviate some academic stress and help them efficiently learn again this fall and winter so they are able to be champions of success in the classroom and on the field. 

For me, the LAKER Academic Success Center stands out. Not because of its stunning facilities and space you would be hard-pressed to find at any other Division II school, but also for its commitment to the success of the student-athlete beyond athletics. I can't think of a more ideal place for my professional growth as I earn my Masters.