The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Hosts "Branded A Leader" Development Conference
5/11/2011 | Rebel Ready
May 11, 2011
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss Athletics Department, in conjunction with the Southeastern Conference, recently presented the "Branded A Leader" training for the Rebel student-athletes and support staff.
"Branded A Leader" facilitators Jon Harris, Tony Jordan, Sarah Hillyer and Mfon Udoka conducted the leadership training sessions. The program teaches critical decision-making skills to student-athletes while challenging them to be responsible for their decisions and those of their teammates.
"Branded A Leader" is a highly interactive training program that engages student-athletes in unusually effective ways. The goals of the program are to challenge student-athletes' thinking regarding the social aspects of their lives, to empower student-athletes with information and skills necessary to make good decisions and to confront teammates, to foster student-athlete accountability for personal and teammate behavior, and create awareness and greater understanding of impact of decisions on a wide range of brands.
"The program was awesome," said Ole Miss junior track athlete Erik Solberg. "The presenters taught us not only how to be a leader, but the power of our words. They showed us how to represent ourselves, our teams, our school and our community."
Different session topics touched on the leadership, the dangers of social media, entitlement, the power of language and masculinity and femininity.
"The moderators for `Branded A Leader' did a great job of facilitating discussion," said Steven Cox, Ole Miss Student-Athlete Development Intern. "The impact the sessions had on the student-athletes was visible through the depth of the discussions. In the future, we will see the impact of these sessions when our student-athletes are succeeding in all aspects of their lives."
"Challenging our student-athletes to begin to think and talk about their personal and team goals was great to witness during the leadership training sessions," said Ole Miss Assistant Athletics director Jamil Northcutt. "Most importantly, I was glad to see our student-athletes walk away from the experience with a written plan to achieve their goals. The facilitators with `Branded A Leader' helped to create an environment of transparency and accountability."
Visit www.olemisssports.com/rebelready for more information on Ole Miss' community and student-athlete development efforts.
