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A growing number of programs in higher education focus on student athletes\u2019 mental health, recognizing that the pressures of competing in collegiate athletics, combined with academic challenges, financial concerns and team relationships, can negatively impact student well-being. <\/p>\n
At the University of Richmond, the athletics department created a new program to emphasize holistic student well-being, taking into account the different dimensions of a student athlete\u2019s identity and development. <\/p>\n
Spider Performance, named after the university mascot, unites various stakeholders on campus to provide a seamless experience for student athletes, ensuring they\u2019re properly equipped to tackle challenges on the field, in the classroom and out in the world beyond college. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe athlete identity is a really special part of [students\u2019 identities], but it\u2019s not the only part, so making sure they are [considered] human beings first\u2014even before they\u2019re students, they\u2019re humans first. Let\u2019s examine and explore that identity,\u201d said Lauren Wicklund, senior associate athletics director for leadership and student-athlete development. <\/p>\n
How it works: <\/strong>The university hosts 17 varsity sports in NCAA Division\u00a0I, which include approximately 400 student athletes. Richmond has established four pillars of the student athlete experience: athletic, academic, personal and professional achievement. <\/p>\n \u201cThe whole concept is to build champions for life,\u201d said Wicklund, who oversees the program. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about winning in sport; it\u2019s about winning in the classroom, winning personally and then getting the skills and tools to win for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n These pillars have driven programming in the athletics department for years, but their messaging and implementation created confusion. <\/p>\n Now, under Spider Performance, the contributions and collaborations of stakeholders who support student athletes are more visible and defined, clarifying the assistance given to the athletes and demonstrating the program\u2019s value to recruits. The offices in Spider Performance include academic support, sports medicine, leadership, strength and conditioning, mental health, and well-being. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s building a team around them,\u201d Wicklund explained. \u201cRather than our student athlete thinking, \u2018I have to go eat here, I have to do my homework here, I have to do my workout here,\u2019 it\u2019s, \u2018No, we want you to win at everything you do, and how you do one thing is how you do everything.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Outside of the specific athletic teams, Wicklund and her staff collaborate with other campus entities including faculty members, career services and co-curricular supports. <\/p>\n Preparing for launch: <\/strong>Richmond facilitates a four-year development model for student athletes, starting with an orientation experience for first-year students that helps them understand their strengths and temperament, up to more career-focused programming for seniors. <\/p>\n Recognizing how busy students\u2019 schedules get during their athletic season, the university has also created other high-impact learning experiences that are more flexible and adaptive. Students can engage in a career trek to meet alumni across the country, study abroad for a short period, participate in a service project or take a wellness course, all designed to fit into their already-packed schedules. <\/p>\n Part of the goal is to help each student feel confident discussing their experience as an athlete and how it contributes to their long-term goals. For instance, students might feel ill-equipped for a full-time job because they never had a 12-week internship, but university staff help them translate their experiences on the field or the court into skills applicable to a workplace environment, Wicklund said. <\/p>\n The university is also adapting financial literacy programming to include information on name, image and likeness rights for student athletes, covering not just budgeting, investing and financial literacy topics but also more specific information related to their teams. <\/p>\n Encouraging athletes to attend extra sessions can be a challenge, but the Spider Performance team aims to help students understand the value of the program and how it applies to their daily lives. The program also requires buy-in from other role models in students\u2019 lives, including trainers, coaches and professors. <\/p>\n \u201cWe work really hard to customize fits to different programs so we\u2019re speaking the same language as our coaches,\u201d which helps create a unified message to students, Wicklund said. <\/p>\n If your student success program has a unique feature or twist, we\u2019d like to know about it. <\/em>Click here to submit.<\/em> <\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A growing number of programs in higher education focus on student athletes\u2019 mental health, recognizing that the pressures of competing in collegiate athletics, combined with academic challenges, financial concerns and team relationships, can negatively impact student well-being. At the University of Richmond, the athletics department created a new program to emphasize holistic student well-being, taking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[394,393,395,392,391],"class_list":{"0":"post-8749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-athlete","9":"tag-student","10":"tag-supports","11":"tag-system","12":"tag-unified"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}