Bucknell University Athletics
Victoria Kielty, Sam Rickels Wrap Up NCAA Leadership Forum
11/10/2013 6:47:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Bucknell rower Victoria Kielty, women's lacrosse midfielder Sam Rickels and women's lacrosse head coach Randall Goldsborough were among more than 350 student-athletes and 125 athletics professionals who attended the annual NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Providence, R.I. The conference ended on Sunday, and below Kielty and Rickels wrap up their week.
Victoria Kielty:
As we sit in the airport, the weekend having fully come to a close, it seems all the more surreal that no more than four days ago, we were arriving here. To say that this experience has been profoundly life changing is an understatement in itself. Sam and I were expecting a rigorous schedule that would include more note taking and remembering of vastly long lectures than 'get to know you' games and ice breakers. In point of fact, the weekend was one large collegiate vacation. However, I implore you not to be misled by the term 'vacation'. The irony behind the weekend is that we were partaking in lessons of leadership and learning from them without even being aware.
The weekend forced us all out of our comfort zones and facilitated our learning of new skills at every turn we took. Our random roommate assignments started the weekend off by forcing us to cultivate our social skills and share a room with an individual we had never met before. Similarly, the composition of our colour breakout groups made up of individual athletes, each from separate schools and being asked to complete tasks and work together to achieve outcomes drew from our abilities as individual leaders ourselves. One would initially think that putting a room full of college age athletes and adult administrators (many of whom are leaders of their teams and institutions) would be a recipe for disaster. To the contrary, we actually learned that a team, an organization, an office -- any group you can think of -- does not work, it cannot function, without every individual being a leader themselves and not just following one dictator. Words will not do justice to the amount of growth I saw and experienced over these four days. The ability of a group of complete strangers to come together and influence each other so profoundly speaks volumes of the power of communication and connection. More than anything, this is what this weekend has taught me.
We opened our morning by listening to renowned author and public speaker Sam Davidson. He regaled us with tales from a kindergarten romance (which, needless to say had the entire ballroom in stitches) and reminded us that our direction in life has no momentum without the passion to pursue it. He spoke of leaders primarily being story tellers, and that being able to convince others of the power of your passion and why your cause matters is the key to good leadership. If you are passionate enough about your cause and are able to translate that into something contagious that other people will feel as well, you have been successful as a leader.
Anyone will remember the coach, teammate or family member who may have told them how to do something but who also allowed you to become truly excited about it. People may forget what you say, and they will forget what you do, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Leadership boils down to making people feel wanted, valued and part of a shared vision. In our colour groups we then discussed what we learned throughout the weekend and how we were going to bring it back to our campuses and team. Comforting to see was that some of the people with the most authority in the room learned that they were truly concerned with how they are perceived and the effect they had on others. This had an effect on the room I was in was sobering to say the least. Guards were let down and true communication ensued. To me, this allowed the culmination of all the lessons we learned this weekend to happen.
To be able to sit down with someone you may originally perceive as your superior, or equally your inferior and converse as equals, sharing ideas and concepts to help better the lives of others is the very epitome of what I consider to be a life changing experience. This weekend 350 people entered a building as individual captains, athletes, administrators and NCAA employees and left as friends, networking contacts and ultimately better individuals. The NCAA Leadership Forum provided Sam, Coach Goldsborough and myself with such an amazing set of opportunities and learning experiences, we are truly sad (and honestly reluctant) to leave the beautiful city of Providence but more than eager to share our stories with everyone back at Bucknell.
The fourth and final day of the Leadership Forum started as an early morning check out of the Omni Hotel, and the last meal with all of my new-found friends. Breakfast was a fun-filled hour of re-living the memories from the weekend. To go along with the laughing, and eating lots of bacon, a dance session broke out and more memories were made.
After finishing a huge breakfast, getting my money's worth, we had an incredible speaker, Sam Davidson, speak to us about developing leadership at a young age and expressing our values in the way we lead. He told us a hilarious story about professing his love to Jenny, his second grade crush. Through his story, he told us how his leadership emerged. Sam Davidson taught us that leadership is telling our story, and impacting people with our story. He left us with two thought; one being YOLO, "you only lead once"; and two, there is no "one day", only " day one". Instead of thinking about what you want to do or observing, act and start a change today.
Our experience ended with one last color team session where we discussed our emotional intelligence, and the Five Essential EQ Tools. These tools assist us in rebounding or reacting to highly emotional situations using different strategies like Stress Busting, or Emotional Communication. These tools are effective on the field and off the field, and help us become better leaders and better people overall. This topic fit well for the last day because we all had emotional goodbyes. We discussed what our favorite parts of the Forum were and what information we are going to take back to our institutions.
This experience was so much more than I could have ever asked for. I learned more about myself than I ever have before, and gained confidence with my leadership style. I met people that I am going to stay in contact with for years to come and learned lessons that I will carry with me throughout my entire life. I cannot put into words everything I gained from this experience. I was so lucky to be able to come on this trip, and be exposed to so many lessons and people that will forever change the way I approach leadership as well as change the way I approach life.
Players Mentioned
