Engage, Educate & Empower: Big Ten Student-Athlete Leadership Retreat

Five student-athletes embarked on a three-day trip to Rosemont, Illinois, for the Big Ten Student-Athlete Leadership Retreat, where they enhanced their personal growth through workshops, guest speakers, and team-bonding activities. 

The event, which took place from June 16-18, was created to help student-athletes within the Big Ten develop leadership skills and teamwork through personal growth. By the end of the event, student-athletes felt empowered to take on leadership roles in their respective communities. 

“Our goal was to create a space where leaders across our campus would have the opportunity to be engaged, educated and empowered,” said Omar Brown, Senior Vice President of Community and Impact for the Big Ten. “It was important to have football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball student-athletes in attendance because they are not usually in the SAAC space.”

Maryland men’s basketball’s rising redshirt junior guard Myles Rice was one of the student-athletes who attended the retreat. He hoped to further his personal growth off the court. 

“My overall take for it being a first-time thing was very smooth,” Rise said. “I was put in an environment to be a leader and learn from other student-athletes; to get insight on how they think about what’s going on in college athletics.” 

Day one of the retreat was all about networking. The major highlight of the day was the networking event that took place with various alumni from Big Ten schools. There were six stations that student-athletes could explore in 15-minute rotations. 

The stations included business, finance, management and real estate; legal, healthcare and medicine; technology and engineering; sports; and education, nonprofit and social impact.

Day two focused on programming. It began with a keynote discussion and conference address, followed by breakout sessions for football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and SAAC. Within these small groups, a programming rotation was held, where student-athletes learned more about leadership, mental health, financial literacy and branding. 

Once the stations were complete, a larger group discussion was held to recap everything presented throughout the day. Day two was completed with a student-athlete social event at the Big Ten Headquarters. 

“It is important to connect in this type of environment because there are multiple athletes from a variety of sports teams with different experiences and interests in certain topics that we can all learn from,” Rice said.

The final day revolved around community. The main event was Field Day, which was conducted with local youth groups. There were six stations, and each group spent 15 minutes at each station. 

Activities included tug-of-war, sack racing, bucket filling, obstacle courses, hamster wheel racing and rock, paper, scissors hula hoop racing. At the end, everyone participated in a final game of capture the flag before coming together for lunch and flying home. 

Events like this retreat are an excellent way for student-athletes to not only further their personal development but also to network with those from other schools and learn more about the various experiences throughout the Big Ten. 

“This was a great experience bringing together members of the Big Ten for an educational and leadership development opportunity,” said Adaeze Alaeze, Director of Student-Athlete Development at the University of Maryland. “It was a pleasure getting to engage and interact with other student-athletes within the Big Ten and guide their experience during this program at the Big Ten headquarters.”