Student Athlete Leadership Academy, Western PA; August 7. 2009

It was my pleasure to present 3 sessions on Leadership Development to the approx. 200 student/athletes attending the event at Robert Morris University in Moon Township last week. I was contacted by the organizer through the USOC's Athletes Referral Network, which is a way the USOC tries to get athletes into the local markets via events just like this one.

My main goal was to help these kids how to go about creating a plan for their leadership goals. We discussed what they see as important leadership qualities and then how those apply - or don't - to their leadership capabilities today. We then looked into some ways they can improve the areas they need work on. I tried to help them understand that they are more than just athletes - they are students, someone's kid, church goer, worker, etc... They can draw on all aspects of their lives to help build their leadership qualities and the respect they earn from each area of their lives will help them on the field.

It was a fun morning. Some coaches and athletic directors attended also attended and they all had some great questions and comments. The kids were all pretty good about discussing their strengths and weaknesses and drew from what others were suggesting on how to help build a specific quality. Some of the qualities they saw as making an effective leader:

- Good communicator
- Confident
- Able to handle adversity
- Positive attitude
- Inspirational
- Respected/respectful

I hope I get the opportunity to participate again next year - it is nice to get in front of kids to share my story and try to help them as they build theirs.

Olympic Day 2009

June 23 was Olympic Day this year. Olympic Day is an idea that the USOC and the IOC created to promote the Olympic Spirit on a local basis. This year, the USOC was pushing for as many cities as possible to participate to promote the Chicago 2016 bid to bring the Summer Games to Chicago.

I did my part by creating a day long event with the Pittsburgh area YMCAs. I went to 5 different YMCA Summer Camps where I spoke to a few hundred kids from age 5 - 15 about the Olympics, my experiences and the push to get the Olympics back to the US for Chicago 2016. It was a full and fun day of showing my medals and sharing my Olympic Spirit. The kids had some great questions about everyhting from how did I start rowing to when did the Olympics start.

I brought along with me a box of Olympic goodies for each Camp to use as prizes throughout the summer, including hats, beach towels, etc. The kids (and counselors) were all very attentive and excited to learn more about the Olympics. It was a great day that I hope to expand on in years to come. The YMCA is a natural fit with the Olympic Spirit for doing things together.

I posted some of the photos from the day here: http://assets.teamusa.org/olympicdayphotos?selected_city=247&state=39

I presented the following slides and video to my daughter's 5th grade class. The topic was Career Day but my daughter asked that I share my "amateur" career instead of my career. I tried to put in a few life lessons to tie the things I learned from years of training and competing to what is required for a successful career.

The students were very attentive, asked some great questions after and (I hope) made some connections between my messages and their own meaning of goal setting and accomplishments. The teachers were very grateful and appreciative. They said the messages were right on target, which was good to hear -- I was heavy on the "you are not ENTITLED to any success -- you EARN it by hard work". That seems to be at odds with the public school mentality of teaching self esteem before reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic, so I was glad that for now, anyway, my daughter has a teacher that agrees with helping the kids to understand accountability.

I believe we are all responsible for helping our kids and the kids around them to be better citizens and people by example and by sharing our values with them. We cannot force anyone to believe us or listen to us, but we should do all we can to share our experiences to help them grow into responsible adults.

Career Day

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