Sharing their Wisdom

By Erienne Roberts and Frank Maira, December 7, 2022

Ithaca Athletics Leadership Academy hosts “Voices of Experience” event.

Director of the Leadership Academy Greg Shelley (far left) led a panel discussion where five Bomber athletes shared their experiences.

(Photo by IC Athletic Communications)

On Thursday, December 1, the Ithaca College department of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation hosted its annual Voices of Experience Night as a capstone of its fall semester programming for the department’s innovative Leadership Academy. The event gathered student-athletes inside Emerson Suites for a detailed panel discussion and question-and-answer session on the topic of resiliency as well as the experiences of student-athletes during their time at IC.

The program began with opening remarks from director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports, Susan Bassett ’79, who introduced the Leadership Academy to first-year student-athletes and congratulated several Bomber teams on their Liberty League Championships, as well as the wrestling program, which claimed the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Championship during the 2022 calendar year.

Celebrate the various IC conference championships in this highlight video.

Greg Shelley, who is the director of the Leadership Academy and a former associate professor for exercise science and athletic training at IC, then led a discussion panel of five student-athletes: field hockey player Elizabeth Pillow ’23, football player Antwan Robinson ’23, women’s basketball player Emily Dorn ’23, men’s lacrosse player Andrew Tinnesz ’23 and women’s track and field athlete Moriah Byrd.

The conversation and comments by panel members touched on what they learned about resiliency through their participation in athletics. The conversation also highlighted how to navigate change, motivate their teammates, and keep coaches accountable. The panel of student-athletes took turns to share their views on resiliency and exchange personal narratives about how their teams have been able to come together in meaningful ways. They concluded by providing the audience hot button takeaways for continued conversation.

The session was followed by a summary from Shelley, who has specialties in sport psychology, leadership, team building and motivation, and is currently serving as the first-ever senior director of sports leadership and mental conditioning at Cornell University. He shared several takeaways of his own before thanking administrators and coaches for their commitment and support of student-athletes.

“The powerful messages from our senior leaders to their teammates and peers brings the Academy curriculum to life in meaningful ways for employing what we have learned together — especially during the last two years of the pandemic. Bombers continue to succeed and show resiliency through the constantly changing landscape of athletics.”

Susan Bassett ’79, Director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports

“I’d like to extend a big ‘thank you’ to Susan Bassett for her ongoing leadership and for continuing to promote great events like this,” he said. “It was special to have such a talented and committed group of student-athlete panelists. It is incredibly rewarding to watch the leadership growth of so many of our student-athletes as they progress through the programming.”

Shelley and Bassett have worked extensively in creating and developing the programming for the Leadership Academy, which was founded during the 2014-15 academic year.

“Our Voices of Experience event is a capstone to our work throughout the semester,” Bassett said. “The powerful messages from our senior leaders to their teammates and peers brings the Academy curriculum to life in meaningful ways for employing what we have learned together — especially during the last two years of the pandemic. Bombers continue to succeed and show resiliency through the constantly changing landscape of athletics.”

The Leadership Academy instills traits and philosophies that will be applicable in athletes’ sport participation at Ithaca College as well as their professional and personal endeavors, for the rest of their lives. Approximately 300 student-athletes representing all 27 varsity sports participate in the program, which builds upon its curriculum each year.