Leadership Academy Testimonials

Between April 2014 – August 2016, GoHeels.com published a series of "My Carolina Experience" articles catching up with current and former Tar Heel student-athletes as they looked back on their time in Chapel Hill. Below are excerpts from those articles which reference the Leadership Academy.

Sanaz Marand (Tennis)
Additionally, Marand feels the Leadership Academy played an important part in the team's success her senior year. She says through her last year as a Veteran Leader she learned how to lead the team and how to deal with teammates based on who they were. Learning how to support and guide them based on those things was essential.

Elly Wagner (Softball)
Through the Leadership Academy, Wagner has found ways to implement leadership, first developing herself as a leader and then using her strengths to lead others. "I use these tools on the softball field, in the classroom and in social situations and I appreciate the fact that the skills I am fine-tuning now through the Leadership Academy will set me apart in the workforce and in any of my future endeavors."

Jackson Simmons (Basketball)
Simmons has found that connection through his teammates and in being a CREED Mentor and SWAG representative. Being a mentor for most of his time at Carolina has allowed Simmons the chance to lead by example and practice dealing with many different types of personalities. He feels being a CREED Mentor in the Leadership Academy has made him a better leader and he thanks (assistant athletic director) Cricket Lane for her efforts to always put the athletes first as she teaches them to be effective leaders.

Boyd Okwuonu (Soocer)
"Carolina has helped me grow as an all-around person not just as a player," he says. "Attending Leadership Academy and having all these mentors and advisors around me has helped me become who I am today. Leadership, responsibility, organization... I could go on with list of things that I have learned to help me grow and become a better man, player, and maybe even a father one day. It has structured my life and has showed me to never be content with mediocrity."

Yael Averbuch (Soccer)
"I was part of the Leadership Academy, and that taught me a great deal about the nuances of team culture and how I fit into that. I still think about a lot of the principles and concepts that we were introduced to in those leadership academy meetings. I cannot speak highly enough of Anson (Dorrance) as a leader. He has developed a team culture that is like no other team in the world. Most importantly, he always made it very clear to us that our contribution to the world as human beings came first.

Elizabeth Mallett (Golf)
Away from the golf course, Mallett has found great satisfaction in her participation with the Leadership Academy and in volunteering with her team for community service projects. After completing Carolina CREED as a first year, she decided to continue participation with the Leadership Academy in her sophomore year as a CREED Mentor and has loved the opportunity it has given her to give the same guidance she craved as an incoming freshman.
"Being part of the Leadership Academy has taught me how to interact with people in order to get the best out of them, which is something you have to do every single day. It has also given me the opportunity to interact with athletes from other sports and make friendships that I will keep forever."

Jake Bernstein (Fencing)
With so much going on in Bernstein's life, athletics provides not only a built-in support system and friends but acts as a centerpiece of stability. Thanks to the Leadership Academy, athletics also provides him with the tools to grow in all aspects and under many circumstances.
"The fencing team has certainly been a positive influence on my college experience," he says. "The senior leadership on our team has helped me grow - they did a fantastic job of keeping the team atmosphere positive. I gained so much this past year as part of the Rising Stars program in the Leadership Academy. In addition to helping me develop as a leader, the team has provided a network of friends that have shaped my experience in college."

Kent Emmanuel (Baseball)
Emanuel attributes his ability to make this mental transition from simply being a talented and very driven player into a leader to his participation in the Leadership Academy. It was through the Leadership Academy that Emanuel was able to take the tangible feedback he got from his teammates and use it to help make him better for the team in so many ways. The academy's impact was something Emanuel felt not just through the success of the team but in how he and his teammates interacted and treated one another. The academy provided him with skills he will continue to use as a professional athlete surrounded by players who may not always be able to mesh well but who will all want to come together in order to reach a common goal.
Because he and his teammates shared so many experiences with each other and had the pleasure of calling each other not just teammate but friend, Emanuel felt it was easy to lead once he put in the work. As a professional Emanuel feels he will have to utilize his experience with the Leadership Academy even more than he had to in college because the intensity level has gone up and the level of connectivity has gone down. The dynamics of the team are different when the sport transitions from being a privilege into your entire livelihood.

Meghan Lyons (Field Hockey)
Another key factor in her final decision – aside from the beautiful campus, a challenging academic experience, and one of the finest field hockey coaching staffs in the country – was the Leadership Academy. The Academy provided the final piece of the puzzle that the determined Delaware native felt was vital to her growth.
Lyons became the first student-athlete at Carolina to serve two years as the Student Athlete Advisory Council President. She also served as a member of the UNC Undergraduate Honor Court and chair of Carolina Dreams in her junior and senior years. In doing so, Lyons was always at the forefront of anything on campus that had to do with the improvement of student-athlete relations.

Kristen Taylor (Lacrosse)
Taylor's participation in the Leadership Academy opened her eyes to just how much common ground she had with all of her peer athletes regardless of sport. Through the academy, Taylor realized the underlying drive within them all was a commitment to winning off and on the field as well as to bringing out the best in every teammate they interacted with regardless of their different motivation.
According to Taylor, the 360-degree feedback that she received through the Leadership Academy allowed her to effectively communicate with her teammates when she was at Carolina and has helped her continue to do so to this day. Taylor now works with Nike, and the global giant happens to do a similar evaluation with its employees every year. The feedback she receives through the evaluation has allowed her to refine her communication with individual employees while continuing to do the things her peers appreciate.
"Everyone has different ways that they respond to leadership and guidance. Having the ability to approach each different relationship to get the best out of them is intangible," says Taylor.
The Leadership Academy is something Taylor feels set her apart from all the other athletes she now works with but it is not the only thing she took away with her from her experience.

Heather O'Reilly (Soccer)
An important piece of Heather's success while playing at Carolina was her participation in what is now call the Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy.
The Leadership Academy provided a safe space for leaders like O'Reilly to come together and bounce ideas off of one another. It served as yet another vehicle that bonded different athletes at the university by allowing them to share things that facilitated their success as well as confide in one another about the various issues preventing them from it.

Haley Hemm (Tennis)
When asked how she feels Carolina helped her grow as a person, Hemm cites two integral parts of the Carolina student-athlete experience - the Leadership Academy and Carolina Outreach.
Even now, Hemm holds the four C's concept she learned in the Leadership Academy dear to her heart. "I will never forget the Four C's: commitment, character, confidence, and composure. Those four elements have been a driving factor and a safety net in my current teaching career. I constantly refocus myself with them when times get rough or situations become adverse."

Marcus Ginyard (Basketball)
"Carolina helped me to feel comfortable chasing my dreams to be a professional basketball player. I was able to become a better basketball player of course, but I found ways to better myself as a leader with the Leadership Academy, and found a support system that allowed me to transition more easily into the professional world."

Maria Santoyo (Rowing)
It was a Disney Institute workshop for Student-Athlete Advisory Council members and Veteran Leaders that opened the necessary doors and lead her to land a position as a sales representative for the Disney Institute.

Nick Weiler (Football)
Weiler's desire to be a part of uplifting the community has since expanded from being a key outreach leader to becoming a CREED Mentor for the past two years to student-athletes in the first level of the Leadership Academy. Additionally, he has found time to mentor fifth graders at Northside Elementary School in the Tar Heel Navigators program, which also teaches leadership. Having served as a CREED Mentor, Weiler continues to mentor students at New Hope and has become a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative for the football team.

Lori Spingola (Softball)
What made Spingola even more special as a student-athlete was the difference she made off the field. During her time at UNC, Spingola established herself in the outreach and leadership building culture that is part of Carolina Athletics. As a Veteran Leader in the Leadership Academy, her competitive spirit was something she strove to instill and nurture in all of her teammates. As a CREED Centor the [Leadership Academy] values were something she tried to instill in up and coming student athletes on all of Carolina's varsity teams.

Emma Shaw (Rowing)
The Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy in particular played a large role in that. "I wanted to be someone who I would respect in the same way I respected my captains. Becoming a CREED Mentor, and the idea of being inspired by teammates and all the incredible students and athletes around me created my next goal of actually becoming a captain."

Joe Kinderwater (Swimming)
"During my time at UNC, I experienced the importance of proper leadership skills through the Leadership Academy. I received a well-balanced education from the top exercise and sport science major in the country, while also exploring the possibilities of my German minor.

Tristine Johnson (Track & Field)
"I was encouraged by an older teammate, Ariel Roberts, to get more involved in the Leadership Academy, and I believe I was able to use what I learned there to find my voice. From there, Cricket Lane was my guide, and the lessons I learned gave me the confidence to not only step my game up as a student athlete but as a leader in every aspect that I felt I was previously lacking."
By her senior year, Johnson had taken her mentality to be her best completely to heart. She took on an internship with Northwestern Mutual, qualified for the NCAA Championships three times, and became a Veteran Leader in the Leadership Academy. Academically, she completed a Global Studies major with a concentration in Global Politics, Nation States and Social Movements while minoring in Social and Economic Justice and Hispanic Studies.

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