One of the NCAA's missions is to enhance opportunities for ethnic minorities and women pursuing careers in athletics and to review issues and make recommendations related to the interests of these student-athletes. Some of the NCAA's programs include:
Enhancement Program Postgraduate Scholarships The NCAA Enhancement Program Postgraduate Scholarship was developed to assist talented ethnic minorities and women gain entry into the field of athletics administration. Each scholarship is valued at $6,000 with 12 awarded to ethnic minorities and 12 awarded to women each fall. Since 1988, 208 scholarships have been awarded; valued at $1,248,000.
National Office Internship Program The NCAA national office staff internship program was developed to assist talented ethnic minorities and women gain positions of leadership in athletics. Since the inception of the program, there have been five basic components established to ensure success. The components include election, mentorship, work experience, training and evaluation. Each component is vital to the success of an internship program. No one component stands by itself or outweighs the others. All are part of the whole educational experience. Ten interns are chosen annually. Each internship is one year in length, which includes a $1,600 per month stipend. In its 11th year, 64 out of 76 interns who have completed the program or 84 percent have accepted positions in athletics. Additionally, in January of each year we invite all conference interns to attend a two-day professional development training session held at the national office.
Diversity Education This educational endeavor, in the form of regional/national workshops, has been developed to enhance the participants' knowledge of the value of diversity and to assist them in developing a plan for implementation within their organization or workplace. The goal is to enhance minorities and women's opportunities in athletics by sensitizing iindividuals at all levels of athletics participation to the importance of diversity. Participants include, but are not limited to, chief executive officers, athletic directors and institutions' priority sports head coaches. Additionally, sessions are conducted for conference membership personnel. The highly participative seminar introduces the remarkable challenges that the future presents to individuals who manage organizations. These challenges are directly related to the dramatic changes that will occur in the demographics of the available workforce in the next decade. Creating effective teams is one issue impacted by the demographic changes. The interaction among people of different cultural backgrounds in the workplace and how to draw on these valuable differences to develop a productive team is examined. Currently, we are developing a training the trainer component that will provide a broader dissemination of awareness and provide problem-solving opportunities for member institutions. For more information, visit the Diversity Training Seminars page.
Fellows Leadership Development Program The goal of the NCAA Presidents Commission Leadership Development Program is to enhance employment and leadership opportunities for ethnic minorities and women at the senior management level of intercollegiate athletics administration. The purpose of the program is to identify minorities and women who aspire to hold positions such as athletics directors and conference commissioners and to involve them in various senior management level administrative experiences that will enable individuals to develop their talents and abilities to achieve their aspirations. The program is designed to foster leadership within intercollegiate athletics and relate to the participants how athletes interface with the total academic experience. The program began as a one-year pilot in 1997 with the first class of six fellows graduating in January of 1998. After evaluating and revising each component, we began the second class of six fellows in November of 1998 and have expanded the program to span over a two year period.
Gender Equity The NCAA staff educates the membership, public and media about gender equity and the law of Title IX. Additionally, the NCAA conducts two regional seminars that promote the principles of Title IX and educate member institutions concerning the implementation of programs that foster gender equity. The NCAA also maintains a resource center that provides reference materials regarding gender equity issues.
The National Girls Sports Camp (GSC) The program in its third year has two parts and was developed to encourage participation by girls, particularly minorities, in non-traditional sports. Its goals are:
NCAA Woman of the Year Award Dinner Women athletes from every state in all three divisions are honored at this annual dinner in the fall.
Future Initiatives Under the direction of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and Committee on Women's Athletes, this functional area is developing a set of initiatives that will be addressed in the coming years, including the enhancement of the role of minority women in athletics, professional development for coaches, enhancement opportunities for minority officials, a minority and women's speakers bureau, a recognition program for those institutions making significant strides in the area of minority enhancement and/or diversity, continued collection of data regarding minority and women's employment and advancement and the development of career issues programs targeted at pre-collegiate student-athletes. For additional information regarding these programs, contact the NCAA Professional Development staff at 317/917-6222. |
