Written by blog contributor Farren Benjamin, USC Track and Field
This past weekend, I was selected along with three other USC student-athletes (Devon Kennard, football; Kevin Greene, football; and Alyssa Davila, soccer) to attend the annual APPLE Conference held in Austin, Texas.
We were able to meet and interact all weekend with student-athletes from around the nation. It was not only a great bonding experience, but an eye-opening look at what other schools and athletic programs are like around the nation.
The goal of the APPLE Conference is to assist and teach college student-athletes and administrators how to promote health and wellness for student-athletes, while also emphasizing how to make the right choices when it comes drugs and alcohol.
The four of us, along with adviser Dr. Robin Scholefield (sports psychologist) attended panels and learned what other schools around the country have already implemented, listened to guest speakers and began to construct plans to introduce here at USC.
As a team, we talked about designing a possible internship available only to student-athletes in which they will learn the program that we went through this weekend and then create an interactive way to teach our sports teams the importance of making the right decisions when it comes to drugs and alcohol in and out of season.
We also emphasized the importance of having a few student-athletes attend the monthly coaches meetings to make sure student-athletes and coaches continue to communicate directly with each other.
Lastly, we talked about creating a Host/Recruiting training program, so when student-athletes are asked to host potential athletes they fully understand what they can and cannot do, and also provide ideas of activities to do with the recruits around the Los Angeles area.
Our team will continue to meet on a weekly basis to ensure we meet our goals from the APPLE Conference and steer student-athletes on a continued path of guidance and future success.
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This past weekend, I was selected along with three other USC student-athletes (Devon Kennard, football; Kevin Greene, football; and Alyssa Davila, soccer) to attend the annual APPLE Conference held in Austin, Texas.
We were able to meet and interact all weekend with student-athletes from around the nation. It was not only a great bonding experience, but an eye-opening look at what other schools and athletic programs are like around the nation.
The goal of the APPLE Conference is to assist and teach college student-athletes and administrators how to promote health and wellness for student-athletes, while also emphasizing how to make the right choices when it comes drugs and alcohol.
The four of us, along with adviser Dr. Robin Scholefield (sports psychologist) attended panels and learned what other schools around the country have already implemented, listened to guest speakers and began to construct plans to introduce here at USC.
As a team, we talked about designing a possible internship available only to student-athletes in which they will learn the program that we went through this weekend and then create an interactive way to teach our sports teams the importance of making the right decisions when it comes to drugs and alcohol in and out of season.
We also emphasized the importance of having a few student-athletes attend the monthly coaches meetings to make sure student-athletes and coaches continue to communicate directly with each other.
Lastly, we talked about creating a Host/Recruiting training program, so when student-athletes are asked to host potential athletes they fully understand what they can and cannot do, and also provide ideas of activities to do with the recruits around the Los Angeles area.
Our team will continue to meet on a weekly basis to ensure we meet our goals from the APPLE Conference and steer student-athletes on a continued path of guidance and future success.
From left: Kennard, Davila, Benjamin and Greene at the APPLE Conference.
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They took Farren to talk about alcohol? Interesting.