Tag Archives: Leadership

…”Because You Say So, I Will D…”

Posted on by under Leadership

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Commitment: Putting your weight on something to the point of vulnerability.  This has been a big challenge for me recently, because most of my professional journey has been pretty formulated up until this point.  Going into the profession of athletic training has been something I planned since high school and I pretty much stuck to the plan until now.  They teach you a lot of things when you get into your program as an athletic training student, but I realized one aspect that was missing, was the art of branding yourself.

You get the foundation of anatomy, physiology, clinical assessment, as well as the art of building a training room, but what happens when you have hit that ceiling?  What happens when that “season” in your life is over and its time for you to reinvent yourself? When you have done your continuing education and have obtained those extra degrees? Now what?

You become vulnerable.  Not necessarily in a negative light, but you begin to reassess where you are as you begin to go through this process.  Today my Pastor spoke on The Book of Luke, and ones encounter with spiritual growth.  He stated that, “knowing that God is going to change something in your life; trust in him and just do.”  Thats what I plan to do, just continue to do.  Though my journey has been pretty set up until this point, I will get better at committing without certainty.  Bore into the experiences and tools that I already have to build into this next phase of my career.  As my friend Marc Williamson from Flamekeepers Hat Club always says to me, nothing happens by coincidence.  I may not have been directly taught the art of branding, but I have great examples around me to feed from. My advice to anyone at this stage in their career is to be bold and go forward without certainty and see where the journey takes you.

What’s Your Inspiration?

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First let me start off by saying Happy New Year and thank you God for the opportunity to be apart of another golden year. While thumbing through the “Gram” I came across this statement that really resonated with why I started this blog in the first place.  Its honestly been  a struggle to stay organized with my posts, as well as cofullsizerenderme up with content that I feel is relative to the audience that I am speaking to which is you.

The truth of the matter is that I do want to inspire people and I am thinking entirely too hard about what I naturally have been doing in my everyday work.  Now this is not an expression of conceit, but humbled honesty.

I recently was blessed to reconnect with a former student athletic trainer of mine from FSU and spend time with her, catching up on her current endeavors.  Though I was sad to hear she had left the clinical side of the profession, she decided to jump into academia and impact those less fortunate in the south Florida area.  I was so inspired as we talked about the lack of opportunity many of her students had and how she felt obligated to continue to push them to be the best that they could be. Her struggles with inequality and lack of opportunity as a Black American graduate student ATC made her realize that her talents would be better beneficial somewhere else.  After she graduated she decided to become an adjunct professor.

My former student took a pause in the conversation and told me that she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tell me that she was so proud of what I had accomplished, especially being a black female with her doctorate and still practicing athletic training.  She said that she hoped that I would continue to keep inspiring and hopefully make my way into the classroom.  I wanted her to know that she continued to inspire me as well and I look forward to having the opportunity to inspire more students such as herself.

God has put me in this place for whatever reason, and I look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead in this year.  As the scripture continues to tell us to not get in the way of “His”plan, I will try my best to not over think this process and do what comes naturally.

Happy New Year

 

 

Paying It Forward

Posted on by under Leadership, TBT

About a month ago I had the opportunity to be a panelist for the Health Professionals Panel at my recent alma mater Teachers College .  It was an honor to speak to fellow students and entrepreneurs about my experience in the health and wellness industry.  I was given the platform to speak on how my degree from TC helped to achieve my goals as well as provide guidance and healthpro_2016advice on employment outlook and usefulness of their degrees.

The novelty has still not worn off to be invited to speak on panels about my journey because I know how it felt to be on the other side of the spectrum hanging on the words of experts when I was a student to help create the path that I am currently on today.  I was honored to sit on a panel that provided me the opportunity as well to engage with individuals such as myself that came from a wide-range of health care fields, still traveling on their career paths.

I look forward to these opportunities because I never know who I may touch or influence why telling my story, and hopefully provide that cue or spark to keep someone pushing towards their light.  Sometimes you just need a spark of hope to know that the journey may not be easy, but it can be well worth it in the in.  I pray that I can can be that for someone.

 

 

 

 

 

Champion Women Leaders!

Posted on by under Leadership, TBT

I recently had the amazing opportunity through Columbia University Athletics to attend the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) rally.

The First-Time Attendee Workshop was an essential space that I was able to better understand what NACWAA was about and all of the resources that were available to its members.  Prior to attending I honestly knew little about the organization, but gained a greater appreciation for the resources that I previously was unaware of.  Many of which I know will help me better in my professional journey.

The NACWAA group provided us with an awesome platform of keynote speakers including:

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1. Amy Cuddy: Social Psychologist, Harvard Business School & Public Health Associate Professor
2. Sarah Robb O’Hagan: Executive, Activist and Entrepreneur
3. Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour: America’s first African American Female Combat Pilot

Each speaker provided an intricate way of highlighting the trending themes of the rally: (1) be your authentic self, (2) be present, and (3) uplift other women.  One statement that stood out from Amy Cuddy’s presentation was, “When you are not present, you hide your competence and your warmth.”

The workshops allowed us to explore many areas of collegiate athletics such as revenue generating, working with your campus community, analytics application, work-life balance, and student-athletes welfare, as well as many others.  Within the student-athletes welfare workshop I appreciated how Oregon State University applied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to how they structure their holistic approach to student-athlete wellness within their apartment.  So
mething that I look forward to exploring a little more to hopefully apply certain tools presented within our department.

All and all the opportunity to be apart of this event and to be in the presence of some of the most influential women in our setting, as well as the men that came to support these women was a pleasure.  I look forward to getting more involved in the organization and plan to attend the NACWAA Leadership Symposium.  I welcome the opportunity to further develop my leadership in intercollegiate athletics and administration, as well as enrich my skills and expand my network.

I hope that more women take the opportunity to  be able to attend this rally and be exposed to such great resources such as I was. I look forward to sharing my experiences and resources  that I attained from this experience. Continue reading →