The Student-Athlete: YHC Academics Meets Division II Athletics
By Jennifer S. Hallett, Ph.D.
This summer, the NCAA’s Division II acceptance of Young Harris College’s application to enter the membership process made history for the Mountain Lions. For coaches and student-athletes, it means greater competition and opportunity to showcase their talent and hard work. For administrators and the College, it means greater name recognition around the region and the country. But what does it mean for academics and the quality of education at Young Harris College? In my opinion, our membership in DII supports our mission as a private, United Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college so completely that it’s almost as if they invented DII just for us.
You see, DII is special, just like dear YHC. Division II uses “Life in the Balance” as the defining statement of its strategic positioning platform, which highlights the emphasis on educating the whole student-athlete. Division II identifies six key attributes that should be sought by and provided to every student-athlete to live life in the balance: learning, service, balance, passion, resourcefulness and sportsmanship. I think you’ll agree that each attribute is clearly reflected in one or more of YHC’s goals to “educate, inspire, empower” our students. For us, education refers to the whole person and requires a comprehensive program of experiences both in and out of the classroom. This is paralleled in the DII attributes of learning and resourcefulness. Both of these include varied experiences fostering versatile knowledge and skills.
YHC also seeks to inspire students, both through our affiliation with The United Methodist Church and our beautiful surroundings. Division II demands that students have passion: for their sport, for excellence and for service to campus and community. To inspire this same passion for service, YHC has instituted a service learning component in our academic program, in addition to our already thriving extracurricular service arsenal. Last year, more than a quarter of our students were involved in some sort of extracurricular or programmatic organization that requires students to engage in service to campus and/or our surrounding community. Our service and experiential learning academic component continues to grow each year, and that is truly inspiring!
Finally, YHC is dedicated to empowering students to exercise independent moral judgment and discover and develop their own talents, skills and abilities. It is easy to see the connection here to the DII attributes of passion and sportsmanship, which is defined by fairness, courtesy and ethical conduct.
Jennifer S. Hallett, Ph.D., joined the Young Harris College faculty in 2008, and currently serves as assistant professor of communication studies and the faculty athletics representative. Dr. Hallett specializes in intergroup communication, language and social interaction. She has co-authored articles in Human Communication Research, Communication Research and Health Communication as well as book chapters in The Dark Side of Interpersonal Relationships and The New Handbook of Language and Social Psychology. Dr. Hallett combines her love of teaching with her love of sports in her role as the faculty athletics representative, representing the College to the NCAA and providing oversight for the academic success of all student-athletes at YHC.
