Our Vision
The University of Guelph's Athletic Department and Guelph Gryphons's Believe to Achieve Community Outreach Program is aimed to aid student-athletes' development in becoming agents of positive social change. We acknowledge that our values underlie every decision that we make, thus we encourage the development of positive community values through this program. The Department of Athletics in collaboration with our student-athletes created this program to take advantage of our potential as one of the most visible parts of the Guelph Community.
The goal is to use this visibility to deepen the leadership role of the Department in community engagement. This program will interact with all areas of the Guelph community, with a particular emphasis on the youth of Guelph.
This program provides a cohesive framework for integrating our on-going community service projects. It provides a structure to ensure that our student-athletes learn positive community values and engagement as a result of their community involvement. It is our vision to establish a thriving Believe to Achieve Outreach Program that will be a national model for success.
4 "Quarters" of Believe to Achieve
Health
Nutritional Education: Physical fitness and balanced nutrition are stressed at all Believe to Achieve Events to combat childhood obesity.
Academics
University Expectations: Academic talks given by student-athletes at Believe to Achieve programs reinforce the importance of higher education.
Teamwork
Anti-Bullying: through personal interaction with student-athletes and positive team building activities, Believe to Achieve participants are shown how to be team players.
Community
Believe to Achieve athletes serve as positive role models to strengthen community values (ie. Violence prevention, giving back).
Student Athlete Objectives
- To promote student-athlete ownership of their academic, athletic, personal and social responsibilities.
- To provide meaningful opportunities for learning about community life and leadership through field-based experiences, service learning and other experiential strategies.
- To help improve student-athlete persistence and academic success.
- To encourage the development of leadership skills and increase the opportunities for student-athletes to find leadership positions in the University and broader community.
- To expose student-athletes to diverse career options.
University of Guelph Objectives
- To strengthen the community relationships of all Gryphon Athletic programs.
- To create projects that can be replicated in order to develop student-athletes' relational and public skills and their identities and community role models.
- To ensure that the program is relevant to students from different backgrounds, values, cultures, ethnicities, perspectives and experiences.
- To develop a program for community engagement that will become a national model for other Athletic Departments to strive for.
For more information:
Sarah Mau, Associate Director of Programming & Facilities | Department of Athletics, University of Guelph | 519-824-4120 Ext. 52124 | smau@uoguelph.ca
