By Kevin Nix and Patrick Schneider, Cronkite PR Lab
Along with development in academics and sport, Sun Devil Athletics also places a high priority on the enrichment of student-athletes’ lives by providing them with life skills and career development training. These workshops, produced within the Sun Devil Athletics Championship Life program, are called “Pitchfork Programming.” Students learn valuable skills to help them thrive not only in their respective sports but also in their undergrad and post-college.
Deana Garner, the Inclusive Excellence and Title Nine Officer for Sun Devil Athletics, conducts these programs.
“Specific to the Pitchfork Programs, I have different months that I work with campus colleagues and others to provide workshops around domestic violence or healthy and unhealthy relationships,” Garner said. “Also, during the spring and the month of April, we provide training around sexual assault prevention for women.”
The programs are meant to be student-athlete-centric because that demographic has a different college and life experience than most other ASU students. While the topics discussed are serious ones, they are meant to introduce student-athletes to real-life issues and educate them on coping with those issues.
Other programs are centered around mental health, nutrition, cultural celebrations, and heritage months.
“Our very first large Pitchfork Programming we had at the beginning of the year was around mental health,” Garner said. “We try to remind student-athletes that they are a multifaceted person, not just an athlete. They’re a student and an athlete, and they’re also part of this wonderful community.”
These programs also urge civic and community engagement from student-athletes, such as voter registration and volunteer work, to prepare them for post-college life, regardless of whether they remain athletes.
While Garner oversees the inclusive excellence programs, other programmers administer additional types of programs. Bill Kennedy oversees the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Kelli Benjamin oversees career development, and Alonzo Jones oversees life skills.
Jones is the Director for Championship Life.
“We develop about 26 programs at different times to allow enough opportunities for students to attend at least four, which is the minimum requirement for the pitchfork incentive,” Jones said. “It allows us to ensure that we're getting our programming needs met collaboratively.”
The representatives in charge recognize not every student is at the same point in their lives. The topics discussed in the programs are centric toward certain age groups.
“There's a freshman track, an all-student-athlete track, and then there's an upper-class track,” Jones said. “Freshman programs… deal with subject matter that make sense for a new student-athlete in a highly academic space just trying to figure things out. The upper-class programs are all careers. And then you have a hodgepodge of different topics.”
Championship Life also brings in representatives from student organizations around campus to help with its educational initiative.
“Our student-athletes need to know where you can connect. Sometimes you may feel comfortable connecting within athletics, but sometimes you may want more than that,” Garner said. “There are multiple clubs that are student-led that our student-athletes might want to get engaged in, but the only way they're going to know is if there are members of these student organizations who become part of their awareness.”
Sun Devil gymnast Cienna Samiley, a member of SAAC and the president of the Mental Health Committee in Sun Devil Athletics, is heavily involved with Pitchfork Programming on the student side.
“We, as a mental health committee, plan specific Pitchfork Programming events every semester,” Samiley said. “We were planning the My Mind Matters event for mental health, and I was the emcee.”
Samiley, along with other student leaders, bounce ideas off each other, with guidance from the program team, to help give participants the best possible experience.
“I think it's really impactful. For me, I feel like I'm helping out the community,” Samiley said. “We had this survey that [student-athletes] took…and it showed that a lot of people were stressed. After attending these meetings, they said they now know how to implement stress coping mechanisms into their daily lives.
“I think that working closely with other sports and collaborating makes us feel closer as a family and athletic department.”
Pitchfork programming allows student-athletes from different sports to learn life skills together, and this unique initiative continues to improve the lives of those who go through it.