Skip to main content

New Program Enables Student-Athletes to Promote Higher Education Abroad

The Coach for College program, involving student-athletes from Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, will be piloted for six weeks this summer in Vietnam.

Duke and UNC athletes travelled to Vietnam to promote higher education

Student-athletes from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will participate in a program being launched this summer that uses sports camps to inspire and prepare youth around the world for higher education.

The Coach for College program will be piloted for six weeks this summer in Vietnam. It will involve student-athletes working alongside host-country college students majoring in physical education. Together they will conduct sports clinics for middle-school children ages 11-15 over two three-week camps, using a multi-function "all-sports court" built on the grounds of the partner middle school before the program begins.  

Lessons learned in the sports clinics will be reinforced through educational programs that focus on the application of sport to science, entrepreneurship and English. The goal is to increase the ability of youngsters to apply theoretical concepts to real-world situations and to help them develop some of the academic, life and other skills needed to successfully attend a college or university.

Additional information sessions will focus on ways to access higher education in America and Vietnam and higher education's benefits to individuals and nations. The Duke and UNC student-athletes will also work with the youngsters' academic and sports teachers at these middle schools, among others.

The concept of Coach for College was developed by Parker Goyer, a 2007 Duke graduate and former member of the Blue Devils women's tennis team. Goyer proposed the project this year as part of a fellowship with the Robertson Scholars Program, an undergraduate merit scholarship and leadership development program for students at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.

"When I went to Vietnam and Belize last summer after my graduation, I discovered that many youth in the rural parts of these countries do not have access to sports equipment and infrastructure or to information about issues critical to their personal health and success," said Goyer, who would like the program to eventually involve student-athletes from across the United States. "As a result, such youth less often access higher education. I felt American college athletes' status as highly skilled sports players who attend some of the best higher education institutions in the world placed them in a unique position to help address some of these issues, while also developing their own leadership and intercultural skills."

 

Goyer expects to work with Vietnam's Can Tho University and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education to pilot the program this summer at the Hoa An Secondary School in the Hau Giang province in preparation for programs there and in Ben Tre province in the summer of 2009.

Coach for College follows the example of DukeEngage, a $30 million initiative launched in 2007 that enables Duke undergraduates to apply classroom theories to real-world issues through immersive experiences at home and abroad. Similarly, Coach for College will foster student-athletes' development as socially conscious citizens and future leaders by providing extracurricular activities they often don't have time to pursue.

"One of my priorities as provost has been to increase the ability of undergraduates to apply the knowledge they have gained through classes in becoming deeply engaged in their local and global communities," said Duke Provost Peter Lange, a key proponent of Coach for College. "Student-athletes are often unable to benefit from these opportunities the university offers due to their training schedules. The Coach for College program overcomes this difficulty, giving student-athletes the chance to become civically engaged via the shared cultural passion of sports in ways compatible with their athletic commitments."  

Lange wrote to UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser after learning of Goyer's desire to make the pilot program a collaborative project with UNC. Moeser has pledged to provide funding for 10 UNC athletes to participate this summer with at least 10 Duke athletes.

 "I believe that such a program will be of great assistance as American universities seek to implement many of the recommendations of the Knight Commission and the NCAA Presidential Oversight task force, on which I served as a member," Moeser said. "I have encouraged Parker to work with UNC and Duke to develop a pilot program with the hope that the NCAA might adopt such a visionary concept for nationwide implementation."

Duke has pledged $130,000 toward this summer's pilot program. The NCAA, whose Education Services Department seeks to promote the leadership development of student-athletes, has also pledged support.

"We have always valued service as an important component of the Duke education and believe this program provides an excellent opportunity for our student-athletes," said Chris Kennedy, senior associate director of athletics at Duke.

At Duke the program is being sponsored by the Duke University Athletic Department, Office of the Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, and will be administered under Duke's Center for Civic Engagement, the umbrella organization for all civic engagement activities at Duke.

Support for UNC students in the program will be awarded through the Carolina Center for Public Service.