Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy Wrap Up Dinner

A group of 50 Loyola University Maryland Student-Athletes gathered to share a meal and some conversation about being leaders and to share what leadership means to each of them. 

Before the dinner began, the student-athletes took a moment of silent reflection to collect their thoughts following another busy weekend. 
The group considered this quote from Albert Camus– Life is the sum of all your choices.

As an icebreaker, the student-athletes talked to at their table about the following from the leadership perspective – Who Am I? (Am I a leader?) Why Am I Here? (Someone thinks I am a leader, Do I lead every day?) Where Am I Going? (Am I leading people in the right Direction?)

They then enjoyed a nice meal and more conversation about the role of self in leadership. 

As the meal was wrapping up, the conversation continued and moved into a discussion of “The Total Package.”

The question of “Are You the Total Package?” was presented and framed in the “Life is the sum of all your choices.”  The group talked about leadership and how leading by example in the areas of Athletics, Academics,  Spiritual, Social  and Service helps each student-athlete create a culture of winning and a culture of commitment.  

The first are that was considered was where each student-athlete currently stands in each of these areas and how this impacts their commitment level on a daily basis. They then took some time to share with their table some of individual thoughts.

In the future The Leadership Academy will continue with 3 sections – Emerging Leaders, Veteran Leaders and Leadership 360.  The student-athletes gathered with their teammates for the final discussion and they thought of other teammates, both current first year student and others that you see has real leadership potential. These recommendations will help select the next group to be part of the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy. 

Finally as they were gathered with teammates they talked about how leadership can help propel your teams to even more success.
Loyola University Maryland has made a big commitment to provide leadership development training to our student-athletes.  This dinner was the culmination of the first full year of the Academy and the student-athletes that were in attendance all highly praised the program and look forward to being part of it in the next academic year.

visit here to see some pictures of the event - https://plus.google.com/106554644781305721427/posts/MVjn7pgqFDz

Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy - Be Excellent

Good Afternoon Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy – I returned yesterday from a trip to the United States Naval Academy. I had the pleasure of attending the USNA Leadership Conference with two student-athletes: Anna Bosse (Track and Cross Country), and Andrew McGill (Men’s Golf), and two student interns from Campus Ministry: Christin Campbell and Ed Ortiz. (If you bump into them ask them about the conference!) There were 220 student leaders from over 60 schools. There were regular students, ROTC members, Midshipmen and Cadets from military academies and also student-athletes. The theme of the conference was Followership: The Evolution of a Leader. I wanted to share just a couple highlights from the event and will share some more in the future. The conference featured talks by former Vice President Dick Cheney, current VP for US Public Policy for Facebook Joel Kaplan, Lieutenant General Sattler of the USMC, Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and many more. It was amazing and the takeaways were numerous. The first talk that I want to tell you all about was by Captain Will Byrne, Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. He is the Dean of Students at USNA. He shared a couple simple messages that when you take a look at it a few times, you will smile and say I can do that. He started by talking about a book that has all the secrets of life – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. The following is from that book- “These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1. Share everything. 2. Play fair. 3. Don't hit people. 4. Put things back where you found them. 5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. 6. Don't take things that aren't yours. 7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody. 8. Wash your hands before you eat. 9. Flush. 10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some. 12. Take a nap every afternoon. 13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. 14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. 15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. 16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first worked you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.” It is so simple but so true. His other point shared with us was based upon what he says to the new midshipmen when they arrive in Annapolis. “Be Excellent.” That is it. Be Excellent. He did expand to add the following – Be Excellent – to yourself Be Excellent – to each other Be Excellent – to this place He went on about each area briefly as well. Be Excellent – To yourself - eat right, work out, study, tell the truth, know the rules To each other – be a good listener, share your time, be an active bystander To this place – take care of your school, your dorm room, your locker room, etc. These are two simple points to share with your teammates. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please touch base if you have any questions. David Gerrity