OSU Prez Speaks to LiFE Sports Campers on College and Career Day – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | General
Gordon Gee kicks off full schedule of higher learning introduction to Columbus inner city youth
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University’s Learning in Fitness and Education (LiFE Sports) summer youth program hosted its second-annual College and Career Day June 24 on campus.
Formerly known as the National Youth in Sports Program (NYSP), LiFE runs through July 9 (8 a.m.-2 p.m.) as a program for approximately 600 youth from the Central Ohio area. LiFE involves daily curriculum that consists of four physical activity sessions and one play-based education period. These activities focus on the development of social competence through sport and other play-based enrichment activities.
During his brief address at the Recreation and Physical Activities Center, Gordon Gee, President of The Ohio State University, helped kick off the day of learning and career exploration with many words of encouragement. Pres. Gee, currently on a trip visiting OSU constituencies in China, spoke to his travels abroad as a motivator to pursue a college degree.
“The world is very small now … that is the reason you are all here,” Gee said inside a packed Tom Davis Gymnasium. “We want to have you come and have a good time, enjoy yourself, learn a great deal and be inspired by the university. Most importantly, we want to have you think about the fact that the world is now yours. All the possibilities in the world are now available to you. We know that you are going to take full advantage of that.”
As part of the second annual College and Career Day, LiFE participants were introduced to various areas and disciplines within the university as the program maintains one of its goals of encouraging higher education to Central Ohio youth.
Campers not only visited academic centers throughout campus, but also ventured to the OSU Don Scott Airport for aviation education sessions, while other campers took part in a full tour of Ohio Stadium. (View a photo gallery). Groups also made stops at the Wexner Center for the Arts and colleges such as animal sciences, linguistics and exercise sciences.
More About LiFE Sports
LiFE Sports has emerged from the National Youth in Sports Program (NYSP) Ohio State originally piloted in 1968. Government funding for NYSP was cut in 2006 and the number of national colleges and universities holding NYSP summer programs dropped dramatically from more than 200 to less than 30 in 2008. Participant numbers continue to decline as the program enters its sixth decade.
In April 2009, LiFE Sports was the recipient of a University Outreach and Excellence in Engagement Grant of $56,000 to aid in funding the program for through 2010.
LiFE Sports not only is a setting for continued summer learning, but a year-round enrichment program intended to utilize sport as a vehicle to teach important life skills that can be transferred to other contexts.
“This is a university program spearheaded by the Department of Athletics, the College of Social Work and Rec Sports to pursue providing a year-round program through a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus,” Jerry Davis, assistant director for event management for OSU athletics and LiFE Sports director, said.
As in the past with NYSP, LiFE Sports will continue to engage current and past Ohio State students and student-athletes as instructors, mentors and speakers each year. This year, Buckeye men’s lacrosse student-athletes Matt Kawamoto and Bryce Woodson are serving as instructors to introduce their sport for the first time in Ohio State’s LiFE Sports camp.
Check back next week for a story and video interviews with Kawamoto and Woodson on their experience so far as LiFE Sports instructors.
