The NCAA conducts a number of programs which help prepare student-athletes for the hectic schedules and academic challenges of college athletic life. These programs are designed to insure adequate academic preparation prior to college and to foster academic excellence and improved graduation rates of student-athletes while in college. The NCAA also provides assistance to student-athletes in applying the social skills gained through participation in sports to positions of leadership in the community after graduation.

CHAMPS/Life Skills Program

In 1991, the NCAA Foundation initiated efforts to create a total development program for student-athletes. Through the collaborative efforts of the NCAA Foundation and the Division 1-A Athletic Directors' Association, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success) was created.

NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference

Provides a forum for some of America's finest student-athletes to gather to discuss and explore viable solutions to critical issues facing student-athletes around the country, as well as to promote better communication and leadership effectiveness between student-athletes and their coaches, administrators, faculty and communities.

• May 31 - June 4,1999 Conference

Outreach Program

The NCAA Outreach Program is an effort to enhance, in a comprehensive way, community awareness and access issues that impact the future of intercollegiate athletics. This program has been developed to support the Association efforts to improve graduation rates and the quality of the student-athlete's experience.

The focus of the program is to provide educational information and to enhance the academic preparation for potential collegiate students; especially those who reside in "empowerment zones" and who have an interest in participating in athletics. Following are areas of concentration:

1. Community Awareness Efforts - In an effort to expand outreach efforts, staff, coaches and players at NCAA institutions will play a key role. The most intense feelings and understandings of the issues confronting student-athletes come from student-athletes. Staff and coaches are key mentors to those student-athletes on their respective teams. While these are not novel realizations, they offer the best foundation for a comprehensive and expanded outreach effort. Strategies are as follows:
   1. Development of programs that will be geared to potential students in grades five through eight.

   2. Develop a clear set of outreach programs and messages that are based on what staff, coaches and student-athletes can do under current NCAA legislation.

   3. Develop a more aggressive delivery system for providing eligibility and educational information to the community, potential students and parents of these age groups.

2. Access - Clearly one of the issues of access is based on performance at the secondary school level. However, the solution to that problem can be the adequacy of preparation at the elementary level. Through the NCAA Outreach Program, this problem is being addressed by forming a partnership with the National Youth Sports Program to develop academic camps and partnerships focusing on positive interventions to impact students in seventh and eighth grades. The goals are to provide academics and leadership training, which include math, reading, test taking and citizenship practices.