Category: College of Applied Health Sciences

Podcast: A Few Minutes With … Kevin Richards

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Feb. 13, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Kinesiology and Community Health assistant professor Kevin Richards spends a Few Minutes With AHS media relations specialist Vince Lara and speaks about his pedagogy research and the socialization of teachers, primarily in physical education.

Transcript

VINCE LARA: This is Vince Lara in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. Today it’s been a few minutes with Kevin Richards, Assistant Professor in the Kinesiology and Community Health Department of AHS, to talk about his pedagogy research and the socialization of teachers.

Kevin, what inspires your research? Let me ask it this way. What led you to do what you do?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, that’s a good question. It’s interesting because a big thrust of my research is socialization. So, basically, you’re asking me what socialized me into the research that I do. But so I did my undergraduate degree back in Massachusetts in physical education. And I had every intention to go out into schools and to become a K-12 physical education teacher.

But back east, you have to have a master’s degree within five years to keep teaching in schools. And so a lot of people did like the night– the night school thing, and that just wasn’t for me. So I decided that I was going to look at graduate programs so I could just knock out that master’s degree in one shot, and then focus on teaching after. And that led me out to Purdue University, where I did my master’s and built the relationship with my advisor, Tom Templin.

And Tom studied socialization. And he was one of kind of the forefathers of that area of research in physical education. And I just got really passionate about that area of research through talking with him. So, you know, the main thrust of my research through the work that I did on my PhD and then, you know, and the majority of my career since focuses on how we recruit, prepare– recruit and prepare teacher– individuals to go into the field of physical education.

And then once they’re out in the schools, what are their lives and careers like? Physical education tends to be a marginalized subject in a lot of schools. And so I do a lot of work looking at marginality and how that affects teachers’ understanding of themselves and their relationships with others.

VINCE LARA: So, basically, to streamline what you’re saying is, you’re trying to build the best teacher you can, is that fair to say?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yes, in a sense. You know, we look to recruit people into our programs who are diverse in terms of things like traditional markers like race and ethnicity. But then also in terms of their background experiences. Physical education’s been traditionally a discipline that potential recruits really see to align with coaching.

So those who want to coach extra curricular school sports sometimes come into physical education with these really solid, developed backgrounds in team sport. And they see physical education as kind of a conduit to continue that. But not every kid who is out taking physical education in schools loves sports. So we try to recruit more diverse students.

But then also looking at the methods that we use in our physical education programs to give those students the knowledge and skills that they’re going to need in order to become effective practitioners into the future. But, also, you know, we focus a lot on dispositions, because, you know, while they’re in our classes, we can hold them accountable. So we can grade them. If they don’t do what we tell them to do, you know, we can fail them even.

But the reality is that once our students transition out of our programs out into schools, we lose that control. And so at that point the true marker is, you know, have they internalized these beliefs to the extent that they’re going to use them even when we’re not watching. And so, we really try to work with students to help them develop ideologies that align with best practice, but are grounded in their own experience, and that they’ll follow through on.

VINCE LARA: What are some of the challenges, you know, physical education teachers– there’s some stigma around that, right? So what are some of the challenges of getting kids into the program? And what do you do to try to, you know, defeat some of those stigmas, if you will?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah. That’s– it’s a really good question. And it’s timely, because this has actually been one particular area that I’ve been focusing on quite a bit in my work right now. But, you know, there are a lot of those negative social stigmas. And some of them, you know, are grounded in fact. You know, unfortunately, there are some physical education teachers, especially at the secondary level, the middle school and high school, who teach using ineffective practices.

The colloquialism in our field is that they roll out the ball. So they just kind of throw a ball out and let the kids play. It’s not educational. It’s not purposeful. And I think that sometimes people think about physical education and they reflect upon their own past experiences or maybe what their kids are going through in school, and they use that as the marker to evaluate the whole discipline. But, you know, of course, physical education can and should do so much more than that.

And so we really try to work with, you know, on the pre-service teacher side of it, develop teachers that are ready to step out into the world of schools, and teach using effective practices. And then a lot of my work has then also looked at those teachers who are in-service, working out in the schools, and how can we help to improve their work conditions and reshape their ideologies so that they’re using best practice. And then you have kind of this streamlined approach in the ideal situation where pre-service teachers are stepping out into schools that are ready to embrace the practices that they’ve learned.

And then, you know, this is all kind of a cyclical process, because the next generation of teachers are going to come out of those schools, and they’re going to see physical education as it’s presented to them by their own teachers, and use that as the basis for evaluation to determine whether or not they think physical education is for them. And so if we can get better physical education in the schools, then we’ll have better recruits coming into our programs.

VINCE LARA: One segment of your research, I noticed, deals with helping teachers deal with stress.

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah.

VINCE LARA: So what methods do you use to research that?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah. So I was initially trained as a qualitative researcher. My advisor, Dr. Templin, was very qualitative. I joke, in that, I don’t think he’s ever, like, calculated a mean in his career, like it just wasn’t his bag. Now I’m exaggerating, he has. But he’s very qualitative. So that’s how I was originally trained.

But then I did a postdoc at Purdue with a woman named Chantal Levesque-Bristol. And she was a cognitive psychologist that used primarily quantitative methods. So I kind of got a mix of both, and have really come to appreciate mixed methods and multiple methods working together. A lot of my studies are designed using sequential approaches.

So we might do a large scale survey of teachers, you know, and get hundreds of responses, asking them questions about stress and burnout, and, you know, protective factors like resilience and perceived mattering. And then we’ll take a sub sample of people who complete that survey, and then do qualitative interviews with them.

But what I’m really excited about is we’re taking all of this information that we’ve learned over the last few years studying teacher stress, and we’re putting it into practice. We got some funding through a small seed grant to develop a professional development program for teachers in local Champaign-Urbana area.

We’re calling it the Dream Project. That’s developing resilience and enhancing appraisals of mattering. And it’s kind of the culmination of the last six years of my career learning about stress and burnout in the relationships among these variables, and how teachers experience their work life, and then putting that to practice to try to do something about it.

VINCE LARA: You also look at social and emotional learning in physical education. Would you elaborate a little bit on that?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah. So that’s kind of a sub area or a second, maybe not sub area, but it’s kind of like a second tree of my research. So I had a colleague when I was going through grad school together– grad school named Michael Hemphill. And Michael and I– or Michael was very interested in social and emotional learning using this one particular best practice model called teaching personal and social responsibility.

And so TPSR, as we call it, is a way to teach within a physical activity context that views physical activity as kind of a mediator or a vehicle to get kids talking about personal and social responsibility. So there you have that hook of physical activity that a lot of kids like. It draws them in. And then that opens the door to say, OK, well, yeah, we’re going to focus on skill development. We’re going to focus on activity. But we’re also going to help you learn to be better people.

And so we focus on goals like participation and showing good effort, respecting the rights and feelings of others, self direction, and some goal setting, leadership and helping other people. And then the ultimate goal of all of that is to take lessons learned in the gym and transfer that out into other aspects of your life. So you know, you learn about respect in a physical activity program where you can use that in school.

Before I came to the University of Alabama, I was at– or excuse me, before I came to the University of Illinois, I was at the University of Alabama. And while I was there, a doctoral student and I, Tori Ivey, we ran a after-school program that focused on social emotional learning through physical activity over the course of three years, and learned a ton about best practices and best ways to do that.

And so then moving up here to Illinois, myself, Naiman Kahn, who’s another faculty in KCH, and my wife, Felicia Richards, who’s an instructor in our department, have been collaborating to take a summer program that our department’s actually offered for like 60 years. It’s one of the longest running summer programs, physical activity summer programs in the country. It used to be called Sport Fitness.

And so we took that and made some modifications to the structure, and rolled out a revised version of the model that we’re now calling IPAL. So it’s Illinois Physical Activity and Life Skills is what we are calling the program now. And that– that’s kind of a framework that we’re going to use this summer to roll out a couple of different summer program offerings using physical activity as kind of the hook, but really trying to get at those social emotional learning goals.

VINCE LARA: Is that program one of the reasons why you chose Illinois?

KEVIN RICHARDS: You know, I chose Illinois for a lot of reasons. I really like the people I worked with at Alabama, had great relationships down there. But Kim Graber and Amy Woods who are in pedagogy area with me, they’re leading scholars in the field. And Kim was actually on my dissertation committee. So we have this relationship that goes back a ways. And then, you know, Amy and I have collaborated over the years, too.

So those pre-existing relationships are a big part of what drew me here. But then, you know, or at least piqued my interest. But then after having come onto campus and see everything that Illinois has to offer, I mean this is a magical place. I really love it here. And, you know, my wife and I couldn’t be happier with the decision we made.

VINCE LARA: Now research obviously is a big part of why you’re at Illinois and our institution, obviously. But you know you also have to teach.

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah.

VINCE LARA: So do you– is there a particular class that you enjoy more than others?

KEVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah. And people who listen to this might find this a bit surprising. But I love teaching actually. You know, it’s a huge part of my identity. I look forward to it. It’s not a burden. I love interacting with students. And the way that my teaching appointment is split here is that I teach one physical education majors course, so I still have my connection with the PE majors.

I teach a rotating course for our doctoral students. And then actually my favorite course is– it’s KIN201, Physical Activity Research Methods. And when the course got turned over to me, Neha Gothe and I actually collaborate on it. I teach it fall, she teaches in the spring. And when the course got turned over to us, you know, I think that it was a good idea, but it needed some fleshing out and development. And it’s been really fun to do that over the last couple of years with Neha.

And, you know, we’ve got the course to a position now, where the feedback that we’re getting at least, is that the students really enjoy it. We use kind of a lecture lab format. So they– you know, a large group lecture, where we can kind of talk about these concepts. But then the students break out into lab groups, where they get more kind of intimate contact and attention.

And, you know, I love talking about research. And so sparking that interest in the minds of our undergraduates, I think is a really cool part of our job. And so, I just got an email the other day actually from a student who was able to take something that we talked about in class a few weeks ago, and apply it in her life, reading a research article, and she wrote to me to tell me about that, which I thought was really cool and that really speaks to what I hope students get out of this class.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to Kevin Richards. This has been A Few Minutes.

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MPH alums are on the front line of the pandemic battle

April 08, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Master of Public Health students are better equipped for the COVID crisis

Graduates of the Master of Public Health degree program in the College of Applied Health Sciences are finding themselves on the front line in the battle against COVID-19. And thanks to their University of Illinois education, they are better-equipped to handle a pandemic for which few could have been prepared.

Ken Borkowski, a 2012 MPH graduate, is working for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, conducting contact tracing with known cases of COVID-19 within the Metro-Detroit area. He credits his ability to succeed in the job in part because of what he learned in the MPH program.

“Going back to the basics of EPI 101, it kind of goes back to how this disease moves, and collecting all the information that’s necessary to give us accurate models of how things are going to look and progress, and what do we need to do to inform the public-health work that we do here in Michigan.”

Borkowski’s job involves calling people dealing with COVID-19—or their family members if the patient is too ill—and collecting information.

“Some of the key things that we’re looking at now is onset date of symptoms, as well as have people been able to quarantine and then did they go to any sort of high-risk areas such as nursing homes, long-term-care facilities, childhood daycare centers, and so on.”

Teresa Castaneda, who graduated from the MPH program in 2019, has a similar job as a communicable disease investigator for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, and also gives credit to her Illinois experience.

“The (epidemiology) knowledge and biostatistics prepared us for how a pandemic is going to come in waves, how we can track cases. There’s really no way to prepare for this, but just knowing the science and the (epidemiology) behind it really helps,” she said.

Castaneda started at CUPHD as a case manager for HIV patients, and was working with a communicable diseases investigator for routine communicable disease cases.

“I assist her when we have someone who tests positive for e-coli or salmonella, or hepatitis B or C, so I’m used to doing that type of investigation.” But she wasn’t surprised when the pandemic hit, or by getting pulled into that type of investigation.

“I’ve been involved in these conversations since right around Christmastime,” she said. “We’ve been having ‘When-it-comes-to-Champaign-County conversations,’ not ‘If-it-comes-to-Champaign-County conversations.”’

Derrius Carter is also a 2019 MPH grad and working for CUPHD in contact tracing and as a public information officer. Part of his job is akin to what Borkowski and Castaneda are doing, but Carter also has a public-facing role.

“What we do is create and provide guidance,” Carter said. “How to grocery shop, how long people should stay home.” Like Castaneda, Carter’s background was more involved with HIV and other infectious disease.

“But we have to be mindful about how all the variables intersect, and create avenues in which we can educate people about both HIV and COVID-19.”

One of Carter’s task is engaging in community-based risk reduction.

“Like using dating apps,” he said. “Just because COVID-19 is around, it doesn’t mean people aren’t being sexually active; so talking about how to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19, in addition to contracting HIV.”

Like Borkowski and Castaneda, Carter credits his MPH education for getting him ready as he could be.

“We had some classes that touched on emergency preparedness, but I don’t think anybody can prepare you for doing the work,” he said. “Moreso learning the different mechanisms to respond. But when you’re actually in it, it’s a little bit different.”

One thing the MPH alums agree on is that their knowledge and healthcare experience have caused them to approach their personal lives with a high degree of COVID-19-related care.

“Because I take this very seriously, I have not been in a grocery store in so long,” Carter said. “I just feel like it makes the most sense. Limiting my risk. I haven’t been to the gym in quite some time. I knew gyms weren’t practicing social distancing.”

Castaneda also tries to limit her time outside.

“Definitely going less frequently (to the grocery store),” she said. “My husband and I, one of us goes once a week. I pretty much go to work, and go to the store once a week.”

The MPH alums are heeding their own advice, but they are most concerned that some people are listening to advice from less-reputable sources.

“Misinformation is most alarming for me,” Carter said. “I’ve gotten calls from people asking, ‘Oh, I can hold my breath for a minute. Does that mean I don’t have COVID-19?’ And I’ve gotten calls asking if a specific demographic is immune.

“And that’s alarming to me because then it means people aren’t taking it as seriously. (Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Dr. (Anthony) Fauci has been continuously been on a media campaign to spread information about COVID-19, but it’s Facebook articles that people are adhering to, and not his guidance.”

Castaneda agreed.

“The public’s response … I didn’t expect the craziness.”

The Illinois graduates remain hopeful the crisis can end in the upcoming months, but are imploring people to follow state and federal guidelines.

“Pandemics come in waves, and we see that historically,” Castaneda said. “So I don’t think when we get to the end of the downturn of this one, that will be the end of COVID-19, but social distancing and washing your hands are the best things you can do for yourselves.

“Look at the amount of flu outbreaks we have every year, and think about what social distancing and hand-washing could do to those. I do hope in a couple of months we will return to some normalcy,” she said.

“My advice for anybody who wants good information is follow your local health department or the state, we always have the best stuff.”

Now engaged in the worst pandemic since the outbreak of H1N1 in 2009, Michigan-native Borkowski is grateful for what he learned at Illinois.

“There’s been times where people that ask me, ‘Do you regret going out of state for school and doing your degree elsewhere and so on? And given everything that my schooling has led me to and got me into the field that I’m in and working in the job that I’m currently working, it was all well worth it. I definitely appreciate knowing that I have such a profound impact on the community that I’m trying to help and serve.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Alumni Spotlight—Ron Barger

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April 10, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Ron Barger, a 1977 graduate of what was then known as Applied Life Studies and who was most recently senior managing director, head of operations and general counsel at ORIX Corporation USA.

Q: Why did you choose the University of Illinois?

A: I grew up in a very small town in Southern Illinois. I was the first kid from either side of my family to go to college. I was lucky enough and did well enough to receive a scholarship and was entered into the University of Illinois. I originally went to Illinois because my mom wanted me to be a doctor. In fact, my first year at Illinois was in premed. At the end of that first year, when I finished my freshman year at Illinois, I didn’t like what I was studying, and I was looking for something else I had such an affinity for sport and athletics and the things that I had been raised with that I looked at what was then the Applied Life Sciences school and enrolled in that, transferred into ALS. From there, it was a magical time, because for me, it ignited the passions that I had, something I didn’t have my freshman year. When I was growing up, Illinois was this wonderful university. It still is. But it was almost something so much greater than what I could expect and so for me, going to Illinois was like a dream come true.

Q: What about AHS inspired things in you? What was it about that program or whatever you saw? Was it a brochure you saw? Was there something on campus that said, hey, transfer into ALS?

A: No, I think I sought it out. I think you have to remember back in the ancient days, when I was in school, and this was in the early to mid ’70s, we didn’t have the Internet in the sense we have now. You didn’t have digital marketing. You didn’t have those kinds of things. I knew some people that were in the college. A lot of the things that it was, what I saw in terms of kinesiology and coaching and the aspects around sport, fit with where I was in my life at that point in time. So it seemed like a natural place to transfer and to then pursue that area of my life.

Q: Were there professors that had a profound impact on you from ALS?

A: Yes, yes. I was blessed. There were several that I think—and I still think about them from time to time. Marianna Trekell was there. Jim Meisner, and, I think, Don Arnold were both involved in the summer program that the college put on for the community that I participated in and helped in. But Jim Meisner, Don Arnold—Helga Deutsch was a professor I thought a great deal of—and Susan Greendorfer. There was a class I had, and I couldn’t tell you the name of it today, but it was along the lines of sociology and sport. I can remember the paper that I wrote. It was about it was about Althea Gibson and Billie Jean King and the impact that their lives and what they were doing, specifically in tennis and their larger role that they had in society because of that, because of their tennis and their recognition. I remember writing a paper in that class as sort of the capstone of that class with Dr. Greendorfer. For me, doing the research and the writing, I still have a very vivid memory of that experience.

Q: You got your law degree from SMU, so maybe AHS didn’t lead to your current career path. But what did you learn here that’s been instrumental to your career?

A: Vince, thank you for the question. I think there is something that I took away from Illinois—in specific, ALS at the time—a couple things, one of which was being exposed to different thoughts, different ways of seeing concepts. All those kinds of things contributed to where I wanted to go. Originally, as I graduated from Illinois, I wanted to go into politics and ultimately return to Southern Illinois and get into politics and represent that region. I ended up going to SMU and then went into a legal career, and from there, being in a large Dallas-based firm. Then I left after, I think, 17 years in private practice, and I went to a company that was being formed by Goldman Sachs called Archon, which was a real estate subsidiary of the firm and being in that organization that we grew to be worldwide, and very large. Then ultimately, I left Archon and went to a company called ORIX. In those roles, what I found is that my talent or my passion is building. It’s building people. It’s building organizations. It’s leading. A lot of the things I took from my time at ALS and some of the classes as well as student teaching at Urbana high school was, how do you coach people? What I found is that in business, the way you move the business is through people. You help them become the best expression of themselves, the fullest expression of who they are. So the same way that you build teams in a sport environment and the same way that you educate people in a classroom is the same way you lead a business—by building people, by building processes, by building organizations and letting them flourish and letting them succeed and how you motivate and how you inspire and how you give them vision and how you build them up and how you coach them and how you mentor them. All those things go into making a successful organization and a successful business. So while there is not a direct correlation to a specific class that I took, being immersed in those kinds of activities and those experiences ultimately is what made—the success that I’ve had as a business leader came based upon those foundations.

Q: As you said, there’s not a direct correlation between the law and what you learned at ALS. But clearly, there was the foundation in place from here and from those classes that you enjoyed. You talked about the courses you enjoyed the most. Were there any others that you could say really stood out to you?

A: I remember the anatomy classes I had. I loved cutting on the cadavers. I loved the labs, the exercise physiology labs that I had. Student teaching at Urbana High School was a wonderful classroom experience and working for a gentleman by the name of John Stergulz over there. Those kinds of things are life experiences that helped form me. I look at this stage in my life and in my career and it’s one in which you’re formed along the way by all those little experiences and people that touch you. One of my favorite philosophers—and a business philosopher, strangely enough—is John Wooden. Coach Wooden, if you’ve ever read any of his quotes, he didn’t think of himself as a basketball coach. He thought of himself as an educator. Some of the things that he said, and I still follow those, I’m trying to think of the exact quote, but something like, “Five years from now, you’re going to be the product of those people you’ve met and those books you’ve read.” I frankly think that goes from the beginning of your life until any point in time that you look at it you are the result of those people that are around you and the intellectual curiosity and the continued learning that you have to make you who that person that you are at that particular moment. I think all of my experiences, and Illinois is certainly formational for me in terms of helping me move from a small town in Southern Illinois to widening my horizons, thinking about things more broadly than that I had until that point in time, and then launching me into, ultimately, a legal career, which then launched into a business career. I’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed by being associated with some amazing institutions and some amazing people.

Q: What were some of your favorite on-campus and then off-campus experiences?

A: I’m glad you phrased it like that. I can tell you there are a couple of experiences specifically to AHS that I remember. There was one summer that I was working for the recreation department and was sort of the gym supervisor for Huff Gym. And I can remember being in there late at night, not another person in the gym, and looking around and feeling the people and the events that had taken place in that facility and in that gym. And just sitting there in the dark and feeling it around you and knowing that at so many different times, during the time that Huff was being used as the basketball arena and the state high school basketball championships were played there, that it touched me very deeply. I take that with me. Something that I’ve found as well is just the relationships I had with some of the professors. And that’s what surprised me. For example, Don Arnold wrote a book with regard to, I think it was about the legal aspects of the administration of physical athletics or physical education and athletics in public schools. I was in law school when he sent me a draft of it and said, will you look at this for me now that you’re in law school? Having that sort of relationship was something that impacted me. Having professors that were very engaged with you, were very willing to be a part of your journey, and that’s something—I don’t have a specific recollection of a class. I can just tell you the way I felt is that they were engaged and willing to be partner, mentor and coach, and teach me along my journey. So that’s a wonderful thing. You ask about things that happened that were off-campus. I happened to be on-campus my freshman year when all the streaking was going on. So I can still remember that part of the college experience. I have just the fondest of memories of the University of Illinois. Walking down the quad late at night, I remember walking on campus as a freshman, feeling like you didn’t know a soul and when you walked away as a senior, you couldn’t pass five minutes walking down the quad without running into somebody and seeing a friend. At that time, I think you’re very impressionable. I think you’re very open to what is available to you as you’re in that part of your life and for me, it was a very formative time.

Q: In closing, I’d like to ask you what you would say to someone, a prospective student, to recommend the College of Applied Sciences?

A: I’ve been fortunate to be on the Board of Visitors and so I’ve had an opportunity to be around the college. I am deeply impressed with Dean Hanley-Maxwell. I think she is doing a phenomenal job guiding the college, expanding its reach, enhancing its reputation, looking at ways to integrate what the college is doing, what AHS is doing, into other parts of the university, other parts of the community, and frankly, other parts of the world. I’m really impressed with that and the depth of the areas that the college now touches is amazing. A good friend of mine has recently rejoined as the head of development, Jean Driscoll. I think she will be a wonderful return addition and an Illini coming back home to lead development for the college. Every time I go to a board meeting, and I listen to what is being done, I am amazed. I’m gratified by what I hear and frankly; I am just so thankful that I was able to be a graduate of that college and this University. So if you have a passion in this area, you can take this college, the curriculums that it provides to you, and do amazing things. I think it also prepares you for, if that is not where you necessarily see your journey ultimately taking you, it gives you a great foundation for going and following that dream, if you have something outside of it. I look at my undergraduate degree as being something that has been foundational for both my legal career and my business career. And I think that is probably even more enhanced today with the current state of AHS.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Alumni Spotlight—Marty Morse

April 01, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Marty Morse, who got his kinesiology degree in 1984 and master’s in exercise physiology in 1987 at Illinois, and who was the university’s first wheelchair track coach in 1984.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: In 1980, my coach told me that the Department of Kinesiology at Illinois was the finest in the world. Also in 1980, the Director of Boston University’s Spinal Cord Injury Center, Dr. Murray Freed, recommended that I pursue my wheelchair athletics dreams at the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES). I visited in 1980 with both kinesiology and DRES faculty. I fell immediately in love with the campus.

Q: Which professors had the most impact on you?

A: In kinesiology, it was Dr. Helga Deutsch and Dr. Richard Boileau. At DRES, it was Dr. Bradley Hedrick and Dr. Stephen Figoni. In kinesiology, I was surrounded by professors who knew of my goals and they became involved in making sure I reached or surpassed my academic dreams. At DRES, Doctor Hedrick and Figoni set the bar high for me in athletics and academics. Each day was crammed full with learning at the feet of these two giants in the field of athletics and academics.

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: Everything I was required to take in kinesiology I enjoyed. The same can be said for DRES. Hedrick and Figoni kept the learning challenging, but fun.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: I had no idea where I was going when I entered AHS other than the fact I would be coaching. Dr. Hedrick made sure I received a graduate assistantship at DRES. That alone set my career path in coaching at DRES.

Q: Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: Yes. I was (the first) wheelchair track and field coach at DRES from 1984-2005.

Q:What is your current job?

A: I retired from full-time coaching in 2009.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience?

A: Day-to-day contact coaching Illinois student-athletes. There is a vibe being around Illinois student-athletes that can’t be found anywhere else. I thrived in that environment. Each day I was surrounded by the best and the brightest wheelchair athletes that come to the Urbana-Champaign campus to realize their academic and athletic dreams.

Q: What would you say to recommend AHS to a prospective student?

A: Kinesiology and DRES remain where I found them in 1981, the best. If you want to help people live an active, vigorous, healthy lifestyles, the College of AHS is the place to be. You will be challenged outside your current comfort level to achieve your dreams.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

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Alumni Spotlight—Katie Bradbury

Sept. 13, 2021 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Katie Bradbury, who got her master’s degree in Recreation, Sport and Tourism in 2013 and who is now an afterschool adventure/camp supervisor in the city of Mesquite, Texas.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: There has not been a chapter of my life that did not include recreation, be it county recreation programs I took part in as a kid, or working at overnight summer camps for the better part of my teens and early 20s. My life has been pretty much dedicated to the field of recreation, and what better program to gain further knowledge in recreation than the RST program. Although there are plenty of universities that offered Recreation, Sports, and Tourism, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was the only one (that) multiple professors from my undergrad days had mentioned to further my educational career.

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: I would say financing and budgeting as well as Human Resources in RST were both classes I enjoyed because I learned so much more than I did in my undergrad outdoor recreation budgeting classes. The course I enjoyed, because it was just a fun course, was marketing. It really allows a level of creativity to be used for each assignment.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: My career path was set a long time ago. I was working at a summer camp in Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada, when my director told me he has a degree in recreation. I had never heard of such a thing. Come to find out (Eastern Washington University) had outdoor recreation as a degree, I graduated a few years later. During that time I had learned so much about the business side of the field, we became certified in everything we could; however, seasonal work was difficult and getting your foot in the door of government agencies or not-for-profits at an administrative level was extremely difficult without having more education or more experience. As recreation professionals know, this field changes every 7-10 years. Continuing education is a necessity. Going back to school and becoming a part of the AHS RST program has really helped in employment and immediate job advancement.

Q:Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: I owe a lot to my experience at AHS and I do believe it has led me to my current career choice. During college, I worked at the State Farm Center and Memorial Stadium and I would not have known about those positions without the College of Applied Health Sciences. It allowed me to network and let me know of positions that were available in event management. It ultimately lead me to finalize my decision on exactly what I wanted to be in addition to the qualities that I wanted and did not want to have as a leader in my field.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience?

A: My favorite on-campus experience was graduation, and meeting the professors I had only talked to online.

Q: What would you say to recommend AHS to a prospective student?

A: For me, AHS has allowed me the opportunity to work within the communities to help keep people active, children engaged, seniors mobile and social, and provide a service that are vital to the population we serve.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

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Alumni Spotlight—Christian Perez

Feb. 29, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Christian Perez, a 2015 Recreation, Sport and Tourism graduate who is now Senior Operations Coordinator, Fan Experience for the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: From a young age, I always had a fascination and passion for sports. My dream as a kid was to be a professional soccer player, but recognized early on that perhaps I didn’t have the full skillset to do it, but I knew I wanted to be involved in the game off the field. When it came time to apply for colleges, AHS made the most sense for the career path I wanted to take.

Q: Why did you pick RST?

A: I knew I wanted to be involved on the business side of sports, and the Sport Management program provided within RST caught my attention from the start. The atmosphere and family feel of RST and AHS made it a very comfortable environment to be in. You basically knew almost every one of your classmates since you were in 95 percent of the same classes every semester.

Q: Which professors had the most impact on you?

A: My academic advisor at the time, LoriKay Paden, played a big role in me wanting to stay in RST. As a freshman I had my doubts about the academic path I was on, but talking to LoriKay reassured me that I was making the right decision staying in RST. Dr. Michael Raycraft was someone that kept class interesting, even when he maybe knew that the material from that particular day in class wasn’t the most glamorous. He wasn’t afraid to put students on the spot in class when answering questions, which I am thankful for now. It’s always good to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Dr. Ryan Gower always had time to meet and chat with you, no matter what he was doing. I remember on days before class, my friends Tim, Tom and I would stop by his office and he was always down to chat or to tell us one his undergrad stories or how his kids were doing. That’s a personality trait that I hope I can replicate.

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: Not sure if it is still around, but RST 300 was my first introduction to real world experience. Events and Planning made us engage with outside businesses to put on an event from the bottom up and most of the skills I learned in that class, I can still apply today.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: I had an idea of the career path I wanted to take as far as being involved in the front office of a sports team. However, at the time I did not know that I wanted to get into game day and stadium operations, which is my current role. I always thought that I wanted to get into marketing, and to be honest it just sounded “cool” at the time, but really didn’t know what it entailed to be involved in marketing with a sports team. I was able to get an internship with a minor league baseball that first exposed me to stadium operations, but was not the biggest fan. When an opportunity for an operations internship came up with the Chicago Fire, I took it and haven’t looked back since.

Q:Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: My AHS experience definitely helped prepare me for life after graduation. Being in RST helped build a foundation for what it means to be a business professional and how to market and network yourself to industry leaders. The skills I obtained from time management, communication and organization throughout my Illinois tenure definitely set me up for success post-undergrad.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience?

A: It is hard to narrow down a few experiences, let alone just one. That said, the friends I gained throughout my college experience will always be the best part about Illinois. Taking down No. 1-ranked Indiana basketball in 2012 will always be a good memory, though!

Q: What would you say to recommend AHS to a prospective student?

A: First and foremost, always try to keep an open mind! The close connections you can develop with your professors and staff can serve as a great steppingstone for your career post-undergrad. Being involved in a college like AHS gives you the opportunity to meet all your classmates, build relationships, and seek out your professors whenever you need them. Take advantage of being on a Big Ten campus and start to develop your professional network as early as possible, it never hurts to reach out to someone just ask some questions or to pick their brain.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Tim Nugent honored by Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Feb. 14, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

It is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor outside of enshrinement

Tim Nugent’s award is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor, outside of enshrinement.

Tim Nugent, considered the “Father of Accessibility,” and the founder of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services at the University of Illinois, has been posthumously awarded the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

It is the Hall of Fame’s highest honor outside of enshrinement.

Nugent, who died on Nov. 11, 2015, at the age of 92, was a 24-year-old World War II veteran and University of Wisconsin graduate student when, in 1948, he took charge of a new program that has since become the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services at Illinois. Established first to serve the needs of wounded World War II veterans seeking to attend college, DRES, as it became to be known, later opened to other students with disabilities and would become the first comprehensive service program of its kind.

Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn, the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee who served from 1949-1964, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional and/or the international game.

“The Basketball Hall of Fame is pleased to posthumously recognize Timothy Nugent as the recipient of this year’s Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “Mr. Nugent was truly ahead of his time when it came to ideas of accessibility and creating opportunities for those with physical limitations. As the founder and original commissioner of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, we appreciate his contributions to the game we celebrate.”

Nugent will be formally honored during Hall of Fame Enshrinment Weekend in Springfield, Mass., Aug. 28-30.

After concluding his military career, Nugent organized wheelchair sports for wounded veterans who were otherwise limited by lack of opportunity. Wheelchair basketball started up around the country, and most of the teams were organized at Veterans Administration hospitals. Nugent and his team, the Gizz Kids, organized the first wheelchair basketball tournament; from this, the National Wheelchair Basketball Association was formed. The Gizz Kids took their game on the road and went around the country expanding acceptance for wheelchair basketball.

Marty Morse, who was an assistant coach for the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team from 1984-92 and coached the wheelchair track and field racing team from 1981 to 2004, called Nugent a “visionary.”

“I was fortunate to be an undergrad when Tim was working at DRES. He expected excellence from me as a student-athlete and as a coach,” Morse said.

Nugent in 1973 was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame after serving as the first CEO of that organization and last year was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame.

Two-time Paralympic medalist Will Waller, an Illinois graduate, DRES alum and current CEO of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, said Nugent, “created a venue for me to recognize and pursue my potential.

“I’m forever grateful for his vision and stubborn passion to pursue it and expand it in the face of active resistance. The result: he created a movement that would inexorably change the trajectory of lives of people with disabilities. Sport was a catalyst to change the perception of people with disabilities, including self-perception. Nugent’s legacy extends far beyond the field of play. His name is synonymous with the terms accessibility and disability rights, making his societal impact extraordinary to say the least.”

Current Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball coach Matt Buchi said no one was more deserving of the honor than Nugent.

“Dr. Nugent has dramatically impacted my life and so many of my friends and teammates in the wheelchair basketball community through his passion for providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities,” Buchi said. “His never-ending drive to push the status-quo of accessibility and resources for individuals with disabilities, paved the way for us to be able to achieve a college degree and pursue our passions in sports and in life.”

Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, an NWBA Board of Directors member, said she was excited when she heard the news.

“The most incredible part of Dr. Nugent legacy is that he saw the potential in every person he met,” she said. “At that time, disabled people were seen as less than simply because they were disabled. Dr. Nugent knew that disability didn’t impact their ability to be valued members of society and demanded that those individuals were treated as such. The other part of his legacy that I carry with me everyday is his dogged pursuit of justice. He never let someone telling him no stop him from doing what he knew was right and just. I’m grateful to be a small part of carrying on his legacy at Illinois. I can’t think of anyone who is more deserving of this honor from the NBA.”

In 2014, the first U.S. Paralympic training site for wheelchair racing was established at DRES, and today no university as is dominant as the University of Illinois is in Paralympic track and field.

The credit for that is unmistakable, Morse said.

“That wouldn’t have been possible without Tim,” he said. “When I got here in 1981 as a student, much of the hard work had been done, changing people’s perceptions. He laid such solid ground work.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Alumni Spotlight—Charles Burton

April 23, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Charles Burton, an Recreation, Sport and Tourism undergraduate and graduate alum who is now Chief Operating Officer of the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club in Champaign, Ill.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: If you are driven by curiosity, creativity, and the desire to improve the lives of others or you are interested/fascinated by the human body and the sciences it is natural, pursue a degree in Applied Health Science. As an athlete, with a passion for helping others, I chose AHS as a springboard to gain relevant practical experience working closely with other students and professors in fast-moving environments. The college of applied health sciences equips you to implement scientific principles together with practical clinical experience toward improving quality of life for patients in the rapidly growing and ever-changing healthcare and recreational, sport and tourism industries.

Q: Why did you pick RST?

A: As previously stated, as an student-athlete, I had become to appreciate the competition, adversity, theory practice and science that is required to be successful in sports. In looking at the professional climate, Recreation, Sport & Tourism had began to grow on a world-wide scale. The NBA had become a global brand and other sports were using metrics and science to gain competitive edges in competition. Hospitality & Tourism had also began to grow with more families traveling abroad and more individuals looking to become entrepreneurs in specific sciences. The concept of leisure had been studied and were in its early stages of understanding its effects on mental health and a healthy lifestyle. In Parks & Recreation as well as Youth Development, logic models and fundamental program development principles were becoming the standard. RST allowed me to gain experience in all of these arenas and develop analytical and critical thinking skills to adapt to the fast-growing and ever-changing environment. RST provided me with the opportunity to gain necessary hard & soft skills to be able to have success in any career. The transferable skills allowed to me to be flexible in my career choices and use my passion for helping others in a variety of ways professionally.

Q: Which professors had the most impact on you?

A: It’s hard for me to name one. Each professor brought a different perspective and level of expertise, which challenged me to adapt and always look at challenges as opportunities. The professors gave me more than academic information, they gave me perspective and skills that allowed me to be successful today. Here is a quote, “The world will never stop evolving, our responsibility is to accept the discomfort with change but use it to grow/expand our knowledge through the change to create new opportunities!”

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: RST 501 Concepts & Applications in Recreation, Sport & Tourism. This course opens your eyes to various opportunities via a conceptual lens.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: I had no idea of what I wanted to do! Outside of being an athlete, I didn’t know what I was good at.

Q:Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: Yes, it did. I have worked in almost every aspect of Recreation, Sport & Tourism. My current position as Director of Operations/COO requires me to work conceptually on changing critical issues, finance/budgeting, problem solving, looking for new opportunities through challenges, program development, community relations, customer services, organizational leadership, mentoring/coaching, etc. The foundation for all of these skills came from AHS.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience

A: The Quad! Such a beautiful space and seeing the diversity and being able to speak with and understand various cultures were amazing. Spaces like this help us come together and develop a higher level of cultural competency.

Q: What does AHS mean to you?

A: AHS means 4 P’s (Passion; Purpose: Potential; Pathways). Getting a degree from AHS will assist you with Finding your Passion, Defining your Purpose, Discovering your Potential, and Developing Pathways to a Greater Future! These are the strategies for growth and development that are used every day.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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A Few Minutes With … Joe Cross

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Feb. 06, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

College of Applied Health Sciences media relations specialist Vince Lara speaks with Joe Cross, a former Illinois basketball player who went on to get his PhD in education policy, organization and leadership at Illinois, about his new role as an academic skills specialist at AHS.

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Transcript

VINCE LARA: This is Vince Lara at the College of Applied Sciences at the University of Illinois. Today, I speak with Joe Cross, a former Illini basketball player who will not forget his PhD in education policy organization and leadership in Illinois, about his new role as academic skills specialist at AHS.

Joe, tell me about what led you to Illinois as a student.

JOE CROSS: Sure. Back in 1998, I was, I was playing basketball at Florida International University, down in Miami, Florida. And I had previous communications with the coach then here, Lon Kruger, who’s now the head coach at Oklahoma University.

And so had communications with him and his coaching staff. A good friend of mine, Robert McCullum, who’s his assistant coach, who’s now at FAMU, know they’re good friends of the family. He had heard about what I was doing at FIU. When he was at Florida, he had recruited me there.

When he got to the University of Illinois, he just thought it would be a good fit for me to be back at home. And I reached out to him, my family. And we thought it would be a better fit than where I was at, although I was having a great time in Miami. I knew here would put me in a position to be successful, not so much on the court, as far as going to the NBA or something like that, but does in my off the court, my career, things like that.

And so he recruited me to come in 1998, the fall, really the spring, start of the spring semester of 99, really. And that’s when I started, and that’s what brought me to Illinois, just the relationships that I had with that coaching staff, and my desire to play at the high level division 1 basketball.

And so, I like, sport management was my major there at FIU, that I was looking to go into. And I knew they had a sport major, sport management major here. It was leisure studies, really, at the time. The program was called leisure studies.

so it was like a– it was really a easy fit. I knew the majority of the players, Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffin, Robert Archibald, Brian Cook. You know, I kind of knew all those guys, Victor

And it was just really, I felt like they were my family already. So that’s kind of how I got here to Illinois. And I’ve been here ever since.

VINCE LARA: Wow. You mentioned your undergrad in sport management. I’m wondering, you transition to working with students. I wonder why you decided to do that.

JOE CROSS: Well, like most students, you know, after that undergrad degree with sport management, I just knew I had to you know, most of my jobs in high school were internships, working at, our summer jobs where we have YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, that type of thing.

And so when I got done with undergrad, I knew I was going to somehow transition into it. Really, Terry Cole, the former assistant athletic director, he had done a lot of work at the Boys and Girls Club, Boys and Girls Club here. And he was just like, Joe, I think this would be a awesome fit.

And I did some summer internships or experiences with Boys and Girls Club, as a community service stuff, and things like that. However, my the director of Academic Services at the time was Tom, who was my academic advisor too, I saw what he did as an academic advisor, and for the athletic department. And I was just, I was in awe of just the type of impact that he was making with all the athletes, you know, and how he just mentored. Because he played here at the University of Illinois at the time as well during the early 90s.

And so I saw him, how he mentors students and in the classroom, but not only in the classroom, in their sports, basketball, or track, or whatever, wrestling, and how he was just a mentor to them. And so I wanted to do– although Boys and Girls Club was great, and I wanted to be a mentor for the kids in the community, and the YMCA and things like that.

Joe DeLucia is over the parks Champaign Parks and Rec here. And so I was good friends with him, and did some work with him, community work with him. And so I had different avenues I could go into. But this piece that working with the student athletes, and being a sort of counselor, advisor, mentor, that really intrigued me.

And so I really talked to Tim Heichel about that. And he really started me on the path to being an academic advisor, and with DIA, Intercollegiate Athletics. And I actually loved my experiences there. And I did that for seven years. I was over football for a few years, working with under Ron Zook and his staff.

And so I got some really the experiences working with a variety of teams, softball and baseball and track and gymnastics and those types of areas. And I had an awesome time with that.

Well that led me over to the College of Education, where I was an academic advisor, and also working on Ph.D work, there in EPO, Education Policy Organization leadership.

And so a good friend of my, mentor, Dr. James Anderson, and Dr. Chris and Dr. Bill Trent and those guys is really who have been mentors since I’ve been here the University of Illinois, and they got me over there working in advising. And I finished the PhD program over there, which in turn kind of brought me full circle. I did a postdoc in IGB Institute for Genomic Biology, and on their outreach team there, working with the community and getting the community K through 12 students interested in STEM fields and things like that, and worked working with a guy, Bruce Fouke, Dr. Bruce Fouke over at IGB.

And once this position opened up in applied sciences, working with the IGB program, I knew Mannie Jackson. I know him. And there’s been an alum of the university, and knew his vision for the program. And once I found out who was over it, and April Carter, just the relationship, really just, you know, just, you know, it was just a good fit for me. Again, so I was really, really appreciative.

VINCE LARA: You mentioned, iLeap. And you know, the campus in general, UIUC, it’s one of the most diverse in the country, might be the most diverse. And I wonder, what does the university do well to attract students of color, in your opinion?

JOE CROSS: Sure. I mean, what attracts things of color is the faculty of color, is the people in leadership positions of color. Reg, Dr. Reggie Austin– and I mean, I’ve known him for quite some time. So when you can see people that look like you, talk like you, act like you, walk like you, think like you, process, you know, things like you, problem solve like you, can relate to your situation, you get drawn in.

It’s not any rocket science. You know, historically black colleges and universities get the numbers that they get, and they attract the people who they attract, is because they can say hey, you know, I come from where you come from. I think like you think. I understand how you process things. And this is how I made it out of my situation, or this is how I’m able to further my situation, and whether if it’s a great situation.

And so U of I does an awesome job in this, especially with our students. We see we see that because they can come right into our university and have a family right away, and to see people interact with people that come from similar backgrounds. And I think applied sciences sizes does a great job in doing that, and showing our students that balance and diversity.

VINCE LARA: Now what do you see your role at iLeap being?

JOE CROSS: Sure. Our basic role is to help students be successful in their academic experiences here while in college and at the university. I mean that’s what Mannie L. Jackson want this to be, where he had a place to come. And even though maybe were the university didn’t look all like him.

He was one of very few, and the only, you know, one of the only black athletes on his team, basketball players, he saw, he found a home, you know, at this college. And he talks very highly of about college. And so that’s what I want to make every student that’s a first generation student does.

You know, African-American, Latino, you know, those types of students, whether you have underrepresented in whatever area, I want to make sure that you’re comfortable in this space whenever you come in, that this is a safe haven for you, that you can get the resources that you need, get the help that you need, the assistance that you need, in order to continue to be here at the university.

We have so many students that are going through so many different things. They just need to know I can come to a place where I feel safe, I feel respected, and I know that I can get the answer to my question, or they can lead me directly to the answer to my questions.

VINCE LARA: Now as a former athlete yourself, you were in leisure sciences, as you said, what they called AHS back then. And AHS has a reputation for drawing a lot of students a lot of student athletes, Reggie Corbin, for example, Oluwole Betiku, right, guys who have spoken really highly of the RST program in general. What do you think is the pipeline that helps that, keep that going?

JOE CROSS: Well, their main interest is sport. And so that was the common interest. As a kid, I didn’t grow up knowing about sport management. Oh, I want to go into sport management as a major. No, I didn’t. I didn’t know about the major at all. You know, not until I got to college and I started messing around with different genetics, and then I found out– I went, wait, what is sport management? What is it all about?

And so I think that they’re attractive because it’s right up their alley. I mean, anytime that you can talk, if your sports minded person, and you’re talking about sports the majority of the time– you know, but a lot of people didn’t understand. You, you know, sport management deals a lot with– the management is the business yeah part of it.

And that’s really intriguing to a lot of students, because sports is a business, especially now that we’re moving into an age where see that these are, you know, maybe able to get paid for their likeness, you know, pretty soon. I mean, it’s a business to them. They have to market themselves.

VINCE LARA: For sure.

JOE CROSS: And sport management is a wonderful, gives you the background, wonderful background and intellect into that area. So I’m even, now that know that the, sports has gone into a different era, into a different genre, I think that this next generation of student will even look more favorably upon sport management. Because you know, it’s a business.

VINCE LARA: Now what do you see, what’s your role post graduation for these students? Like, how much can you follow them, and what does that outreach look like?

JOE CROSS: Sure. I mean, of course you want to stay with the students as much as you can, to help them into their career. My position right now is just to, in this area, just to make sure that they have the best experience possible while they’re here in college, with our students, whether they’re the athletes, not athletes, because we do have non-athletes in the iLeap program.

It’s really just to, you know, for first and second year students, to make sure that they have a good footing, a good foundation, you know, while they’re here.

Of course, yes, I’ve only been here for a short time. And I want to make those relationships and build those relationships, where you know, whoever is working with the Bulls, or whoever’s working with the Blues, you know, Dallas, or whoever’s working with whomever over at Indy, the Colts or whatever, we can still stay in that communication. Or if they’re in the medical field, there’s some type of way.

Or they’re out with the community, solving some pretty big health issues, that I could be working with them as well.

I just got here. So I would love to broaden that, and help those students when they graduate.

VINCE LARA: What do you, you’ve said you, you’ve only been here a short time. But what’s your favorite part of the job so far?

JOE CROSS: The interaction with the students.

VINCE LARA: Yeah.

JOE CROSS: Oh man. I mean, I come from– I miss that. For the two last two years, I was able to publish some writings and things like that while I was working on my postdoc. But I had little to no interaction with the students.

And that’s immediately what I found like, man, that makes my day. On students just, you build that relationship with students. And they can come in and out of your office. The door is always open. And they just drop by. Just, you know, just saying hello. You know, just so many students, it’s the first day of classes today.

So many students have come by, just say what’s up, Joe? How are you doing? Happy New Year. This is what I did during break. You know, so, so much fun. Or I’m so glad to be back. I hated being at home. I’m so glad to be back in my own apartment, you know, in my own bed, you know, and stuff like that. Just hearing those stories, and they’re ready for the semester to start.

You know, that’s really what I really enjoy.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to today’s guest, Joe Cross. For more episodes of A Few Minutes With, please go to iHeart Radio, Spotify, iTunes, by Buzzsprout, and other places where you can hear podcasts, and search A Few Minutes With.

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Day one of Sapora Symposium about Grange

Nov. 21, 2019 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Red Grange legacy celebrated; RST students urged toward professional passion

RST students, wearing replicas of Red Grange’s jersey, gather around his statue in Grange Grove (Photo by Fred Zwicky)

The first day of the 16th annual Sapora Symposium was intended to be a tribute to Red Grange, the former Illini football star who put college football and the NFL on the map in the 1920s.

And while Grange was a main subject of the afternoon panel, so was the message from other speakers from the College of Applied Health Sciences and the Recreation, Sport and Tourism Department about the futures of most of the student attendees.

AHS Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, RST department head Carla Santos and Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood all implored RST students to embrace the opportunities that Sapora afforded them, while bracing for the careers that await them.

“This is your first opportunity for professional development,” Dean Hanley-Maxwell said to the 350 students and other guests at the Colonnade Club within Memorial Stadium. “RST has given students like you an extraordinary opportunity to learn from and network with people you might work with. You are tomorrow’s leaders. How will you learn from what you hear? Will it spark a passion in you?”

Coach Underwood, whose son Tyler is an RST student with a concentration in sport management, spoke about the rewards in industries that come with an RST degree, but also warned of the sacrifices and struggles.

“I was 26 years in the profession before I became a head Division I basketball coach. I’ve gone backward in salary several times,” the third-year Illinois coach said. “But I have never worked a day in my life. This is a passion. What you’re getting ready to take on in life, is very, very special.

“It’s an extremely competitive field. Don’t be bashful, don’t be shy. You don’t make it in this field that way. (But) don’t let it be work, let it be a passion.”

The Grange panelists then took center stage, moderated by former Illinois sports information director Mike Pearson. Former Sports Illustrated writer Lars Anderson, who wrote “The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL,” in 2009, was the first to speak and talked about how the man nicknamed the Galloping Ghost transcended sports in the 1920s because ‘What they were seeing from Grange was unlike anything else.”

Chris Willis, the head of research for NFL Films and author of the new book, “Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar,” said some people claimed Grange saved the NFL.

“He was the first superstar athlete who joined the NFL. His legacy was almost a blueprint of what the modern player does today. He left school early, signed with an agent, got a huge contract, got endorsements, appeared in Hollywood movies, and won NFL championships. He has a huge legacy.”

Day Two of the Sapora Symposium — named for Dr. Allen Sapora, a pioneer in recreation education and research at Illinois — was termed a “Career Diversity and Global Readiness Summit, and speakers include former Illini basketball star Deon Thomas, Midwest Living Magazine publisher Melissa Luebbe, and Illinois physics emeritus professor and renowned physics-of-baseball researcher Alan Nathan.

The Sapora Symposium was created and developed by the alumni advisory board of the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism in honor of Dr. Sapora. Dr. Sapora was a cornerstone to the education and careers of many of our alumni. He believed in mentoring younger generations and in providing them with critical connections to professionals in the field.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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