July 25, 2017
Part 1: Purpose | Part 2: Service
The final edition in our three-part series highlighting the Pepperdine Athletics Department's commitment to "Purpose, Service, Leadership" is a look at how the department has invested in leadership development for its student-athletes.
MALIBU, Calif. - Preparing student-athletes to be leaders both on and off the court has always been a goal of the Pepperdine Athletics Department and this year it was taken to a new level with the rebranding of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as the Waves Leadership Council.
More than just a name change, the Waves Leadership Council (WLC) focused on developing and engaging Pepperdine student-athletes in order to foster a greater sense of leadership both on the Malibu campus and beyond. One of the initiatives that especially highlighted this emphasis was the gender violence prevention night hosted by the WLC.
The training night on gender violence prevention was a four-hour event held in the spring for all Pepperdine student-athletes, with the purpose of equipping the Waves to be leaders in the community and on campus in regards to the prevention of sexual and gender violence. Pepperdine's Title IX Coordinator, La Shonda Coleman, partnered with the Athletics Department and WLC to bring in the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Strategies organization, a group dedicated to training and equipping young leaders in the prevention of such violence.
"I believe that a leadership training on gender-based violence prevention is critically important for Pepperdine student-athletes because they stand at the forefront of shaping cultural attitudes and norms on and around campus," said Coleman. "Within one week of the training program, several students visited the Title IX Office to inquire about how they could become more involved in campus-wide prevention. I also experienced students seeking clarification about what they could do to help as bystanders in concerning situations. The learning and engagement continued beyond the four-hour training that Sunday afternoon, and for this I believe it was all worth it."
Working with Dr. Jackson Katz, the founder and executive director of MVP Strategies, the training program began by grounding students in a shared understanding of leadership and then a shared understanding of the scope of the problem through internal reflection and case studies. Students worked in small groups to operationalize their understanding of the course curriculum and presented insights to their peers.
"We did not want this to be just another lecture," said Coleman. "Instead we wanted it to be enlightening, empowering and a laboratory for social justice and inclusion. We wanted to hear the students' voices and equip them with tools to actually identify how they would get involved on campus to prevent gender-based violence. Some students planned to participate in the annual sexual assault awareness month programming and others planned to host small group discussions on consent and healthy relationships. Others leaned toward using social media as a platform for advocacy and some made it a priority to learn more about the issue of gender-based violence."
WLC members met with MVP Training Facilitators prior to the student-athlete wide event and helped lead breakout groups and discussion throughout the training. Coleman said she plans to continue working with the WLC and Athletics Department to further improve and expand training methods in the future.
In its efforts to help Pepperdine student-athletes develop leadership skills beyond the training night, the WLC used the Habitudes curriculum from the Growing Leaders organization to help shape the discussion and goals of the group throughout the year. The Growing Leaders organization was started for the purpose of helping students realize their ability to lead their peers and make wise decisions during their college career, with the Habitudes curriculum developed as a "research-based program designed to help you take students through the real-life challenges and opportunities that they face on campus and prepare them for life beyond the classroom."
"The WLC brought together student-athletes from each team and made us into one collective unit," said co-president of the group and recently graduated men's volleyball player James Gehrels. "From serving the community, to growing individually and collectively as leaders, WLC gave us a chance to truly live out what it means to be a Wave. I was humbled to be able to help lead the group this past year and can't wait to see what they accomplish going forward."
The WLC had a 71% increase in student-athlete membership after being rebranded and repurposed from its original SAAC incarnation, and the council has already seen at least another 20% increase in membership application for next year.
"We wanted to provide our student-athletes with a very purposeful, leadership-focused organization through WLC and we are excited about the strides we've made over the last year," said Pepperdine Director of Student-Athlete Development and Academic Support, Andrea Mosher-Childress. "Our goal going forward will be to add more career development aspects to the WLC so we can better reach our goal of not only helping our student-athletes thrive while they are here, but also helping them thrive when they move on into the professional world."
The Pepperdine Athletics Department continued its leadership-building efforts into the summer when it hosted the West Coast Conference Student-Athlete Leadership Summit. The Waves were selected by the WCC to host the event, which ran June 28-30 and brought together student-athletes from all 10 conference institutions to participate in different leadership-building activities.
Pepperdine student-athletes Kevin Maeda (men's cross country), Skylar Caputo (beach volleyball), Nolan Taylor (men's basketball), Megan House (women's basketball) and the recently graduated Gehrels (men's volleyball) all took part in the event. JT Thoms and Timothy Alexander from the Growing Leaders organization presented on the first two days of the event, and WCC Commissioner Lynn Holzman, Senior Associate Commissioner and Senior Woman Administrator Connie Hurlburt and Assistant Commissioner of Compliance & Student-Athlete Services Jessica Everhart sponsored and participated throughout the weekend and led the final day of events.
"It was an enlightening experience," said Maeda. "It's an experience we would not get from any other organization. They truly unraveled the mysteries behind leadership and the fundamentals that make a great leader impacting."
The Pepperdine Athletics Department's efforts to build up its student-athletes as leaders will continue into the future, with a solid foundation of development and engagement put into place during the 2016-17 academic year.
"We are very blessed to be at an institution that attracts such a high caliber of student-athletes and we take seriously our calling to foster an environment that develops them into positive leaders," said Director of Athletics Steve Potts. "I am proud of the efforts we have made this year as a department and of how our student-athletes have embraced the opportunities put before them. I look forward to seeing these young people continue to develop as leaders and positively impact the world around them, both during their time here at Pepperdine and beyond."
