Positive Transitions For Student Athletes PDF Download

Collegiate student-athletes have a unique experience that is different in many ways from non-athlete students within the college environment. Student-athletes form a distinct subculture within the greater college culture (Shulman & Bowen, 2001). During the 2012-13 academic year, there were 463,202 student-athletes; however, less than 2% of all collegiate student-athletes will advance to the professional levels (NCAA, 2013 Sept.; NCAA, 2013 Oct.). This leaves the overwhelming majority of student-athletes with the task of transitioning to life beyond athletics, despite much time, mental and physical effort devoted to fostering an athletic identity. Due to the time and energy demands placed on elite college athletes (i.e., NCAA Division I student-athletes), they may have less opportunity to explore and develop alternative identities and career paths. The NCAA has several systems of support to foster student-athlete well-being; however, there appears to be a lack in recognition of the potential difficulty student-athletes may have in transitioning to life beyond collegiate athletics. There also appears to be a lack in discussion of how to best assist student-athletes in this transition upon completion of their collegiate athletic career. Seeking to provide a resource in an area that has not been sufficiently addressed, a program is proposed to assist student-athletes transition to life beyond athletics, entitled Success Through Athletics. Utilizing the format of a logic model (Savaya & Waysman, 2005), the current program incorporates knowledge of the unique experience of student-athletes, as well as literature on transitions and developmental theory specific to student-athletes, and is intended for implementation within an athletic department over the initial four years of a student-athletes collegiate career. The overarching structure of the four year Success Through Athletics program is as follows: (a) year one, goal development and encouragement of dualistic thinking; (b) year two, skills identification and movement toward multiplistic thinking; (c) year three, values identification and continued development of multiplistic thinking; and (d) year four, self-awareness and movement toward relativistic thinking.