{"id":630,"date":"2019-02-20T17:33:34","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T17:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/?p=630"},"modified":"2019-08-16T11:41:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T11:41:24","slug":"tim-cairnduff-soo-builders-building-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/tim-cairnduff-soo-builders-building-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball Participates in Student-Athlete Mentor Program"},"content":{"rendered":"A<\/span> unique opportunity for student-athletes at Lake Superior State University presented itself during this past school year.<\/p>\n

\"womensIntroduced conceptually by Laker Athletic Director Dr. David Paitson, freshman members of the women\u2019s basketball team were the first group of athletes to participate in a new student-athlete mentor program, which paired the three freshmen and one redshirt freshman with Laker women\u2019s basketball alumni with similar academic backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the first team at LSSU to start using this program,\u201d said Lake Superior State women\u2019s basketball head coach Brandon Lokken. \u201cWe paired up past women\u2019s basketball alumni with members of our freshman class. This was our first group of student-athletes to participate in the program and we improved upon it as the year went along.\u201d<\/p>\n

In talking about the mentor program, Lokken explained the many connections that the current student-athletes have with their alumni mentors and how the student-athletes they may find it more challenging to relate with others, who have not been in their place at one time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are alumni, but they are specifically women\u2019s basketball alums and they know what it is like to be a student-athlete,\u201d said Lokken. \u201cThey know what the tough morning workouts are like, what it is like to win and lose games, the highs and lows of the season, and being away from home for the first time. Each student-athlete can look to their mentor for advice, while also building a relationship with somebody that has been in their situation. The mentors provide support to the student-athletes in addition to the guidance that they receive from their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mackenzie

Mackenzie Kalchik<\/p><\/div>\n

Mackenzie Kalchik<\/strong> is one of the women\u2019s basketball student-athletes to take part in the mentoring program and she spoke highly of having somebody to talk with, while undergoing the adjustment to university life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a great thing to have a mentor, especially as a freshman, because it is a big transition [to college] and the mentors can relate to you, both because of your sport and what you are going through in school as student.\u201d<\/p>\n

One emphasis of the program is to pair student-athletes with an alumnus, who had taken a similar path academically. Kalchik, who is majoring in biology, is being mentored by Dr. Julie Vincent<\/strong>, a 1983 graduate of Lake Superior State. Vincent is the chief of the division of Pediatric Cardiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can talk about how you are feeling and any struggles you have without being judged,\u201d said Kalchik.\u00a0 \u201cAs time goes on, I would like to visit her while she\u2019s working and shadow her. It is comforting, but also provides a lot of opportunities for what I want to do for a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Julie

Dr. Julie Vincent ’83<\/p><\/div>\n

Vincent, whose undergraduate degree was in medical technology, came to Lake Superior State College from Central Lake, Michigan. She played basketball for four years, and was also on the softball team during her first two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have loved to have had such a program when I was there,\u201d remarked Vincent. \u201cThere were all sorts of things that somebody could have talked with me about. In high school, we were all good [athletes], but when I got to college, we were playing with the best of the best and you had to push even harder. That is a hard lesson for a freshman in undergrad. Had I had somebody to talk with, who had gone through what I had and knew what to expect, it would have been much different.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some of the alumni involved are recent graduates, others date back much further. Despite the gap in years \u2014 or, perhaps, because of it \u2014 the team members have found the connection with their mentors educational and comforting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is really cool that they went through the same stuff we are going through, just at a different time,\u201d Kalchik said. \u201cYou can see where they are now and it is inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

After piloting the program this past season, the Lake Superior State University Department of Athletics will soon begin implementing the program with other teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept is being well received by our athletic alumni,\u201d said Dr. Paitson. \u201cThey see the value the mentoring program brings to the student-athlete both as a transition into the intercollegiate athletic experience and eventually to their careers in the real world.\u00a0 We love the idea of engaging our Letter Winners and they like the idea of giving back to the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some universities have programs similar to this, they are almost exclusively at the NCAA Division I level of intercollegiate athletics. However, Lake Superior State is working on tailoring the mentor program to its particular nuances, setting it apart from established programs and making it one of the few NCAA Division II institutions to have such a program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found the University of Connecticut and USC had programs with basic similarities, but we wanted to make it specific to us,\u201d Lokken said. \u201cWe are still fine tuning what that is, but we have a good idea of where we are headed and are excited to keep the student-athlete mentor program going.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on how to become an athletic alumni mentor, contact Anna Wilson at awilson11@lssu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/span><\/h4>\"MarkMark Vasey<\/a>
Sports Information & Communication Specialist<\/span>

Mark holds a B.A. in Journalism from Purchase College ('15) and a M.A. in Sport Management from Minnesota State University ('18). Prior to becoming the Athletic Communications Director at LSSU in November, Mark was an Assistant Sports Information Director at University of the Cumberlands. Mark has also served as an Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant at Minnesota State University, a Sports Information Intern at Lindsey Wilson College and a Sports Information Student Assistant at Purchase College. Hailing from Yorktown Height, N.Y., Mark resides in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. <\/p>\r\n<\/div> <\/div><\/div>\r\n\n

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unique opportunity for student-athletes at Lake Superior State University presented itself during this past school year. Introduced conceptually by Laker Athletic Director Dr. David Paitson, freshman members of the women\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakerlog.lssu.edu\/august2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}