The Virginia Tech Athletics' Leadership Institute completed another successful leadership series aimed at exploring and developing foundational leadership skills for freshmen student-athletes. Leadership Culture, a leadership speaker series, was held two evenings this fall, with two athletically accomplished, highly influential Virginia Tech Athletics staff members serving as guest speakers. Nearly 90 freshmen student-athletes attended the sessions, as well as roughly 40 upperclassmen student-athletes who served as peer mentors throughout the event.
Dr. Allison Randall, associate director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, opened the event on Sept. 17 with her talk titled, "How to succeed … NOW!" Randall was a track and field student-athlete at Morgan State and went on to compete in the discus for Jamaica at 2012 London Olympics. Her talk was focused on three main areas that student-athletes can strive for excellence in every day: academics, athletics, and life beyond sport.
Randall understands the importance of leadership development for student-athletes, particularly for first-year student-athletes.
"This is a very critical time in their lives and having the chance to play a role in that development is something I do not take lightly," Randall said. "As strength and conditioning coaches, we are in direct contact with more student-athletes than any other entity in the department. With this consistent interaction, it is imperative that we do our due diligence to exhibit and instill leadership qualities in all our student-athletes beginning in their freshman year."
Night two of the series was led by former Virginia Tech wrestling standout Ty Walz. Walz was a three-time NCAA All-American and ACC champion as a Hokie student-athlete and is currently competing with the U.S. national wrestling team. His talk titled, "Behind-the-scenes of greatness," explored the motivation and discipline it takes to be a great leader.
During his time as a student-athlete, Walz found Virginia Tech Athletics' leadership programs to be a critical piece of his overall experience.
"As a younger student athlete, it was always important for me to look for inspiration anywhere I could find it," Walz said. "Having the opportunity to hear from the minds of great leaders such as Athletics Director Whit Babcock was an experience that's completely invaluable. I always strive to be a leader, and learning how to actually do it from the best leaders out there was, and still is, a major factor in my growth."
Leadership Culture will continue in the spring semester focusing on upperclassmen student-athletes.
