Ep. 50: Tara Evans, Director of Nancy and Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes

The Voice of the Owls Kevin Copp is joined by Director of the Nancy and Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes Tara Evans for the program's 50th episode!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Isle Pod, the official podcast of Temple Athletics. I'm your host, Kevin Cop. As we approach final exams and the end of the spring semester here at Temple, my guest today appropriately is my longtime colleague, Director of the Nancy and Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student Athletes, Tara Evans. Tara has been on the Resnick Center staff since 2014 and was promoted to director in September of 2022. This past fall was the 28th consecutive semester in which Temple student athletes earned a semester GPA above a 3.0, and the eighth trade semester with a GPA of 3.25 or higher. And this past year, Temple Athletics posted a record tying graduation success rate of ninety-five, which tied a department record set back in 2021-22. There are so many numbers, too many numbers that help tell the story, but the academic support for our student athletes has been one of the hallmarks of Temple Athletics and Temple University under Tara's leadership. This is a great conversation about everything that goes into a side of college athletics that uh we as fans don't often get to see. Hope you enjoy Tara Evans after this quick word from our AlPod sponsors.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Coke Zero Sugar might be the best Coke ever? That's right, Jim. With an irresistible taste and zero sugar, Coke Zero Sugar is a must-try for any sports fan. So make sure you wait, Jim, I didn't mean try it right now. We're still on the air. Take a taste, Jen. Really? No, not right now, Jen. We got a game to call.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

So tell me, let's take a few steps back before that, before you get to Syracuse as a swimmer, uh, just your background and swimming. Obviously, you know, swimming and diving particularly is one of those you kind of pick it up early typically if you're gonna make it to Division I college. Was that the case for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yes. Uh I started uh swimming when I was eleven or twelve, um and always had a love of the water, really like couldn't keep me out of the pool when I was younger. So we had a pool growing up and um just like a fish. That's what my mom always said. So Where is home, by the way? Home is uh Westport, Connecticut. Okay. So I am not I'm Northeast girl, northeast uh in the country, not northeast Philly. So being um just a water bug and hanging out in the pool a lot seemed like a natural transition to uh try out swimming, and it was a great fit and loved it and um took off from there.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

And were you doing all the other sports like kids do? You know, were you doing basketball in the winter, softball in the spring? You know, were you kind of that kid, or was it really like swimming focused?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

It was a little of this, a little of that. Um gymnastics, soccer, but um a little bit of softball, hand-eye coordination, ball, really not my thing. Sure. Um balance, not my thing. It just seemed like a natural recipe in the water, yeah. Even today, um throwing a ball, really not my thing.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

So But were you was it clear early on? Obviously, you have a love for it and you're but you're not thinking about it as a kid other than anything, you know, other than just playing in the pool, and you start to get into competitive swimming and organized swimming. And I mean, eleven twelve is not that much of a ramp up to probably by the time you're what fifteen, sixteen, you're starting to have to think about seriously in college. So in that period of time, was it pretty clear early on that like you had some talent and some success?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um just had that love for it and that passion and um that drive. And just my coach was really phenomenal, right? I think a lot of people have a um coach that is really impactful during their youth and their middle school and high school days. So um I had a coach that was really impactful and just loved it and um really helped bring me along and guide me. And um, you know, that next step to college seemed like a natural fit. Didn't really know the whole process when people were reaching out um to recruit and and so forth, but it was um again just like get in the water and go. And that's how I I functioned, right? Didn't really think.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Um It's probably best, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yes, the Nike slogan, don't think, just do it. I don't know if that's still around. And that was really like my thing. Like, okay, get in and just go back and forth, back and forth. So and it worked out well.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

So what were the uh events uh in particular as you get to see you're getting you probably start to get a little more specialized as you get into college? What what was your event or events?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

So I was a backstroker. I always joke that I wanted to get as much air as possible. Um so I did the hundred backstroke, which is four laps, and then I also did the two hundred backstroke. So the 50, which is two laps, isn't typically something you're doing in college. That's really like for freestyle, but um, yes, backstroke was my thing. Get as much air um as you're going back and forth, and you can see where you're going, you can see people cheering for you and stuff. So that was my thing. And do a little bit of freestyle and um breaststroke, not my thing. Um that was really where my weakness was. And um, but the other strokes I could do, but yeah, breaststroke, that frog deal. Yeah, no, no medley relief for you.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah, nope, nope. Um, so uh what was the experience like? Just being at Syracuse, being a uh student athlete there, being a swimmer there, what what was the uh experience for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, no, it was great. Um the second I stepped foot on campus, um, when I visited Syracuse, I fell in love with it, and it's a beautiful campus. The coach took me around um and I was like, this is it, this is where I want to go. And so it was a great experience. My coaches were phenomenal. Um, the athletic department was really supportive and engaged, and um the classes and the rigor was you know what I wanted as well. So um it was a great fit, and my four years were phenomenal and um and really enjoyed everything that I got to be exposed to and being able to travel, right, and to um different universities, and we did a training trip in the winter, so that was really you know great to be able to get away in the winter from the cold. The snow is a different story, right? Syracuse definitely has a lot of snow and not the greatest weather, but you know, you just stay indoors and you study and you work hard and you go back and forth in the pool, so it worked out okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Well that's what I wanted to ask because so as a sports broadcaster, Syracuse is obviously it's on this huge pedestal for people that don't know, it is the most storied journalism program, particularly for broadcast journalism, like Tarico. The names go on and on and on. And so for me, and uh my best friend, my kind of mentor in high school, because we had a TV station in high school, which is how I got into it, he went to Syracuse. He wanted to be a broadcaster, he went to Syracuse, and he loved it and uh you know had a great broadcasting experience, but he did say like the weather is everything everyone makes it out to be. And so I went and it was actually the first college tour I ever took. I went to Syracuse, but I went in June and it was 85 degrees. You were fooled. And I will give the campus tour guide credit because she I remember her saying, like, do not come here based on this weather. Like they were not trying to sell it, they were really trying to actually like make sure like if you can't handle the snow, like do not come here. And I couldn't, I went the other direction and went south to Georgia. I got I got sufficiently scared away. But was it yeah, was it actually as bad?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yeah, it was it was cold up there. You have the lake effect snow. Um, and you know, it's just you stay indoors and during that time frame. But of course, you know, um when it gets nice out in those summer months and it falls out, yeah, in April and May, it's beautiful, yeah. And the fall is beautiful too. So you and you definitely have that window where you need to be mindful of like, okay, make sure you know how to drive in the snow, make sure you have your snow boots, um, you know, all that good stuff. So yeah, it definitely had its moments.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

What was the level of academic what did academic support look like at that time? And particularly in in your situation, I'm sure it maybe looked a little bit different for football and men's basketball, I'm venturing to say, at this era. But what what was academic support like? Did it really I'm sure it didn't exist in the current form that it does now, which we'll get to, but what was that interaction like for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah, so that's a great question. Um that was I graduated in 2001, so you know, late 90s, and academic support was you had required study hall, um, and we went down to Manley Field House, and um, you know, sometimes my friend would bring a pillow. This wasn't me, but my roommate would have a pillow, and um she'd be like, okay, we have to get our eight hours done and you know, go in and and study and do the work that we need to do. Um, and sometimes people would come around and check to see what you're doing, other times not. Not as intensive as what it looks like right now, um, for sure. So, because in the, you know, in the early 2000s, there was the academic reform initiative with the NCA and those types of things. So that was a little bit before that, but um, but yeah, it was structured and expectations, and once you did your time with that study hall and piece, then you're free to um go and you know, sophomore, junior, senior year. There was no requirements tied to that or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

So I guess what I'm wondering is how you get from that where it's not really present in a meaningful way in your life, let's say, to I mean, you've obviously clearly made a career and a life out of it. Did you th know then that that was what you wanted to go into? How does that kind of factor into the past?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, that's a great question. So uh academic support was not as intensive uh at that time. Again, that academic reform happened in the early 2000s, so uh not having as much intensity uh and that regular one-on-one touch point um it made me interested in pursuing a career in academic support. So m being that for someone else um was where my interest lied. So that um opportunity to be able to connect with students and provide them support and um guide them in the right direction and have meaningful conversations, that wasn't really part of the academic piece yet at Syracuse. So um did reach out to individuals in the athletic department as I was trying to figure out my next steps and they were very helpful. This is after I had graduated, they were very helpful in guiding me and giving me information and connecting me with individuals that could help me along my way and figure out, you know, what are my next steps in my journey as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

So is the first time that you kind of are able to do this in a real full-time capacity in a college setting, kind of traditional model that's getting closer to what we have here, was that Villanova?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

That, yes, that was Villanova. Um I worked uh in a program that doesn't exist anymore prior to that, um, called the Play It Smart program. So that was really where I started getting a better idea of doing academic support for athletes. Those are high school athletes, so the program uh sent academic coaches in inner city high schools to work with high school students on um making sure that they had their academics online if they wanted to go on to the next level of college athletics. So I actually worked down the street at Ben Franklin High School.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Um in 2003, four, something like that. Um and then I worked at George Washington High School, which is in the northeast Philly.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Um So I was gonna ask w that I it looked like Villanova might have been the first foray into Philadelphia, but you were in Philly, Philly. Was that your first time being here, living here for an extended period?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, that was my first time being here. Um great program and meaningful, and you collaborate with the coaches, the high school coaches, and you're at all the practices, you're at all the games, and uh it was a great experience being able to partner with the NFF, the National Football Foundation, the NFL was involved a little bit, and being able to support those students because they didn't have those support pieces in place. So helping them navigate what does it look like to take that next step to college. Um, many of them did not go on to play college um athletics, but taking them to different trade schools to tour them and figure out okay, is this what I want to do? How do I apply? How do I do the FAFSFA? Um, let's do some study hall, let's make sure that we're focusing on our academic success. So that was my first introduction. And then uh Villanova had an opportunity there, so applied and and got that position. Um I always like to joke that I Donovic McNabb's wife worked there, actually. So I took her position. Oh, there you go. Which makes sense, right? So um a Syracuse connection with him. But um, but yeah, that's where I started my uh career in college athletics.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

I imagine, and not to say that it's an easy path at all, but after coming from working inner city high schools to working Villanova is a little bit different, and just I think again the amount of support that exists, there's already a baseline, you made it into Villanova, you're already clearly a uh, you know, at least moderately achieving student, if not mostly high achieving students that are able to get there. Yes. Uh I'm sure cutting your teeth at the high school level and really going from kind of, I'm sure, zero to you know sixty for some of these kids, did that make that college transition a little bit less daunting, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, yeah. No, it was it was definitely different, um different student population, right? That you're working with, um, different support, different structures and and so on and so forth. So, but um having that opportunity with my education at Springfield College and my master's degree, and then transitioning and working with the National Football Foundation um seemed like a natural progression because the support was very similar. Um it aligned with you know connecting with the students and doing that one-on-one support. Uh the study hall piece was in place, the tutoring. Um, sometimes I was a tutor for the high school students, which, you know, hit or miss on that one. Math and science, not my thing. Um, but um it seemed like a nice transition and a good fit. And um, you know, I miss working with the high school students. Katie O'Brien, who's the the heads up uh the academic support at Drexel University, I took her spot from the National Football Foundation. So there's all these like small connections, and she's still at Drexel. Um, but she was really a great like lead-in to um helping me understand the role within the National Football Foundation and that academic coach piece, but then also, you know, this is the next step, and she was working in college athletics as well. So that good mentor and that person that was like, okay, this is where your your next steps could leave lead you if um if you so choose. So all right.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Well, the next job you take is at Florida Atlantic. So this is 2008, and this one seems enormously difficult. You're you you this is like a teardown type of job. They're having some massive academic issues.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

You did your research, huh?

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, I got we dug in. You did dug in. Um scholarship reductions due to poor EPR. I mean, this is coming in for kind of like a you know, what we would call in the sports side like a rebuild, right? This is a tough environment, and I'm sure you went into it eyes open, knowing like, hey, this is a big Yes. This is a big project. Uh, you know, what was that experience like for you?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, so they did have some academic challenges. Um the program, I think, when I came on board, was about 10 years old, the football program. So new um program that they were building. The head coach, Howard Schnellenberger, was awesome. He was really great and fantastic to work with. The director um at the time, Michelle Brown, she was a great guide and um very structured and a great mentor and somebody she's the director at UNC now, so somebody that I'm still very connected with. She, I always like to say she took over after UNC, experienced a little bump in the road, um, to say that lately. But yes, it was um intense at times, um, definitely a grind working there to work with the collaboratively with the football program and academics and campus to help turn things around and move things in a good direction for the program. And we did, we we made slap strides to help the APR um and to to move past those reductions and those impacts from the consequences that were tied to the APR, and if you didn't meet those certain benchmarks. Um, but um, but again, it was a great experience and uh enjoyed like every minute working down in Boca Ratone. You know, you can't uh complain about the weather down there and the campus is beautiful, and again, the coaches were supportive, and we really worked collaboratively and and hard um to make sure that we were seeing an improvement and and had the best interest of the student athletes at heart to make sure that they were progressing in the right direction and graduating and so forth.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

So, how does that lead you to Temple? Because I mean, yeah, you're giving up palm trees to come back to uh to the city of Philadelphia. Obviously, you knew what you were getting into from a geographic standpoint, but how does Temple come into the picture? This is 2014?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah, yeah. So um definitely miss those palm trees. Uh when m my husband and I lived in Florida, we would always be a little disappointed we didn't get snow and um the seasons and stuff like that. So eventually my husband's family is from around here. So we decided that um after the birth of our first child, we wanted to move back up closer to home. And um, Justin Miller, who was the director of the Resnik Center at the time, I had known him since my days working at Villanova. He was at the University of South Florida, and um, I think in the early 2000s, again, our paths had crossed. And so I reached out to him and um got connected, found a different opportunity at Temple University to start things off in the Russell Conwell Center, which uh is focused on supporting first generations, it doesn't exist anymore, but it was focused on um supporting first gen students um that are coming into the university. And so I did that for a year, stayed connected with Justin, and uh when an opportunity came up, he actually reached out and was like, you might be a good fit for this position. And so um the rest is history, you know, being able to transition and work with him for I think eight years. We worked really closely together, um, which was fantastic. Justin did an incredible job really turning things around here as well because there were some ups and downs for Temple University with their academics as well. Um, and so just trying to continue on his legacy in the Resnick Center and do good things.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Well, before we get to that transition, I mean you're right, because this does kind of coincide with, you know, this incredible sustained run of academic success and and uh you know all of the number you can look at graduation success rate and academic progress rate, GSR and APR, and just the the grade point average, and you know, we're now we just are taking for granted years and years and years of you know 3.0 or higher as a cumulative GPA across the board, and that's stretched even further and further and further. It's this incredible run of academic success, and and it began, as you said, under Justin's leadership, it's continued under yours, you take over in 2022. What in your mind has been the biggest thing that has explained the consistency of that because we've had coaching changes, we've had great years on the field, we've had down years on, you know, there's ups and downs everywhere, and yet this aspect just continues to be better and better and better and continue to perform at a high level. And I'm just wondering from having kind of had a front row seat to that transition and now the kind of sustained success you've had, how how you quantify that.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great question. Um and to your point, I uh when I talk to recruits, I always talk about how Temple was not in a great position in the early 2000s when the academic reform was going on with their APR and um some of those really important pieces, but the university really invested in that and you see a turnaround, right? And you can see it with Justin taking the helm and um continuing on now. Um I think that the staff is really phenomenal. So I do think the university invested in a robust academic support staff in the Resnik Center. We have um 13 full-time staff members. It's it has grown since Justin um took over, and I haven't added anybody new, but we had an opportunity to have a robust staff, and I think that goes a long way having a um culture of academic success, earned academic success with the students, but the advisors are really there as a guide to help them um and build those rapport and those relationships and that meaningful connection with the students. And again, we're lucky that our numbers are low, so we have a robust um staff that um working with two or three teams, it gives you an opportunity to really get to know the strengths and the weaknesses of the student and how those you can find success there. And of course, our coaching staff is phenomenal, our sport administrators, I think all working collaboratively together to um make sure everybody's on the same page and knows the important information about their academic success um to help the students be successful.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I just want to take a slight detour because you've explained that relationship. I I've gotten the chance to see it now firsthand, being the sport administrator for our gymnastics. I'm just gonna use that as an example. Kelsey Simpson is the academic advisor, so on your staff, she has gymnastics as one of her sports, two or three total, but gymnastics is one of them. And the granularity of information that is in her brain that gets communicated to the coach, to the sport admin, to the student athletes, it is overwhelming. I mean, and it is not just like it's this student athlete has a test coming up in you know, econ 1101, you know, the first test in this class with this professor tends to really get people, but the second test they do a lot better on, so don't be scared by this, you know, seventy four here because I've I mean like the the vast uh just array of knowledge that's in there. And then as you said, the ability to understand the part that we don't get to see is the student athletes are in here and there's an interpersonal relationship and you know they're gonna be upset about a miscarriage or they're gonna be upset about you know something that happened in a competition that may bleed over into their academic and just you're kind of part friend, part psychologist, you know part parent sometimes. I mean and and again that's that's you know times five hundred student athletes you know divided among nineteen teams and divided among your thirteen staff. I mean the just the I'm overwhelmed every time I I hear the just again the amount of stuff that they have to keep in their brain is really remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Yes, yes no it's it's uh really impressive and you know you make a good point that the um the relationship with the student is where it starts, right? And having that connection and being able to build that trust and that rapport and know that we have the student athlete's best interest at heart. But then um taking the day to day. So each week you know connecting with the students sometimes again it could be multiple times per week and just being able to um break down the information, talk through it with the student, um be strategic and how we support them and provide interventions, whether it's meeting with a professor for support or going to the student success center utilizing our support and then sharing that information with the coaches to collaboratively and having those meaningful conversations that drive the success and drive um you know move everything forward in a positive direction. So and it is a lot of information that the advisors are holding in their head.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

I can't even imagine you know with football you have 125 people on that roster like oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah the the football meetings are impressive for sure because the advisors go through the information real quick um and are breaking it down in detail but also if a student's in a good spot with football they're doing excellent and no concerns and they move on to the next student. But you know again making sure that we're providing excellent academic support for the students and again the coaches and the sport administrators and the director of athletics Arthur Johnson and our faculty athletic rep, you know, everybody is so supportive Jody Levine Lofgraben who's my uh supervisor and my boss she's so invested and I always joke around but I I always say she never says no to me. So which is amazing to be able to to do everything to provide that excellent support um for the student and getting to know them on a different front too and really exploring the research that they're doing and the internships that they're doing and um the civic engagement is really cool to see all those things too and and bring that out and really highlight that for the university community. We're looking forward to that event.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

In terms of looking at how this office is constructed, obviously you move from you know uh uh a role that is I guess more direct on the ground uh you know as you're working your way up to now getting to lead uh the the Resnick Center and taking over for Justin as he moved on to become the athletic chief of staff. Uh and I'm sure there's pros and cons in that in that transition, but you know how have things changed for you since 2022 when that transition takes place? Obviously you know the the chance to kind of get to to have the 5,000 foot view but you know maybe not quite as in the weeds uh you know from a a day-to-day standpoint you know with individual student athletes how how have the last kind of three or four years been like in in that role for you?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah, yeah it's been really fantastic. Uh there's definitely been times where um I'm like okay how do I figure out this contract to get this approved right like there's some of the minutia on some of those pieces but then there's also the um opportunity to to be engaged with um higher level meetings and to kind of hear the direction of the university um you know excited about President Fry being on board and the the moves that he's making I think that's really cool. But also trying to bring that information back to the staff right and keep them in the loop and being transparent and moving towards a common goal um what the university has in mind and and keeping their strategic goals in mind as we move forward. So um but I still have a couple women's basketball players that I work with. I couldn't let that out that student piece go, right. So I'm still supporting a few of them and still um meeting regularly with the women's basketball coaching staff, which is great. I do love the student piece, right? And being able to connect with them and help them and I think it's also a nice piece to have that touch point to to know okay what's the day to day still looking like for the advisors what are some of the challenges that they might be facing and how things are changing. Again college athletics is in a I always think it's in a bit of an upheaval way.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

We're gonna get to that next I think we're like halfway through it but oh good I hope so I'll take halfway through it. We're five years in maybe another five years that that's kind of how I um how I look at it.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

But it's cool to be part of those conversations too and kind of hear the the changes and um again Arthur Johnson director of athletics very transparent and and helpful to just you know know what the direction and what the vision and the thought process is on some of the pieces.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So since you said it we'll we'll let's get into it because this is this probably becomes our most frequent recurring topic in the in the course of these podcast conversations is how college athletics has changed. We talk a lot about Transfer Portal we talk a lot about NIL and I think it kind of adds up to on on the there's positives and negatives I'm not here to take aside but there is an element where these relationships are less like they used to be and that you're gonna get a student out of high school they're gonna spend their four or five years here. You know it's just a different model in some ways the relationship is a little bit more transactional uh it's a little bit more um uh uh transient yeah uh and and then you kind of have simultaneously I think a unique wrinkle that's happening in the academic space is also just the way that we learn has changed so much. This is post-COVID more on Zoom, more asynchronous classes. It's not like you know I've sound back in my day when you had Tuesday Thursday 930 to 1045 and you needed to be in class and you know I was an English major. Nothing was online. You were reading paper books you know so the good old days yeah exactly you know we were in lecture halls and you know it just it's so different in so many ways. So I think you kind of are at the intersection of like higher education is changing learning is changing and also college athletics as we know is changing and yet the output continues to be extremely high and you continue to have these great successes. So how are you seeing those kind of structural changes in college athletics play out particularly in this space?

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah so the there are definitely changes with some of our sports. Some of our sports um are same old same old with um having those freshman sophomore junior senior experiences and and engaging with the students um but some of them have changed and are a bit more transactional as you had mentioned, right? So students might be joining us for four to five months or they could be with us for a couple years. It just depends on what the students' interests are and and you know where they want to go with um their academic career if it's here or if it's transferring to another institution. So that has definitely changed a little bit and trying to change with the times and be mindful of our transfer students and make sure they understand the resources that we have available to them as well and partnering with the university to make sure that they're invited to our resource fair. We did our kickoff in the beginning of the fall semester for the student athletes and we invited a lot of campus partners to come and that was an intentional so that not only our current students that have been here for many years have an opportunity to connect with global studies or student affairs, but that our new students get a better understanding as they're transferring in of of what we have to offer them and how we can support them. The the learning environment definitely has shifted a little bit. I think we're settling back into that in person a little bit more um which is nice. So there was a time when Zoom was the the way to go right and a lot of asynchronous or synchronous classes were in play. And those have those their benefits for sure as the conference has changed and there's more travel for some of our students it's allowed them to still continue seamlessly with their classes being in an online environment in the evening golf comes to mind, right? They are traveling a bunch and so they can still get their college of business classes done in the evening from seven to eight fifty five when they've wrapped up on the course, which is phenomenal. So definitely grateful that that allows for some of our students to move forward seamlessly but then we also have those in-person classes that came back pretty strong um and our students are attending in-person classes which I love I think that's a a great opportunity of actually talking to a couple other universities and just kind of getting a feel for what are their what's the setup for their student athletes and it sounds like some of them and some sports are mainly in online classes. So but I think there's a great opportunity to engage with faculty and learn and when they're in person and build that connection with the campus community too, right? Their fellow students that are in the class. So um but there's a balance too you know and just making sure that it works for their the for the student and we have meaningful and important conversations tied to registration of what does a student want to enroll in Shabaz Ahmed who is a former football student athlete here works next to me. Our offices are we're um neighbors and so I do get to hear his conversations with his football students and women's basketball and it is very much what do you want to take how does this align do you want to be in online do you want to be in person some classes for some majors you have to be in person right so it just depends also on what the student is studying but he really is intentional about those conversations to make sure that the students engaged in in what do they what's the structure that they want and what type of learning style do they want um who's teaching the the course as well right so and what does that structure look like for who's teaching it? Are they is it an evening class or is it two days a week or whatnot. So um all those things kind of come into play in helping the students build a schedule that's going to be a good fit for them and help them be successful as well.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

So well I think it's worth kind of putting an exclamation point on that too because something that obviously we have seen and we take for granted because we know it we work here at Temple but I want folks to be aware of is that student athletes are not being funneled into any particular path and you know again it's not my business what happens elsewhere, but you know I I the range of colleges, schools, majors, disciplines, you know, and anything under the sun that is open it really kind of works backward from what the student athlete wants to achieve academically and I mean we have again I'm just gonna speak to the role that I know best in the gymnastics we have someone who's in early childhood education. Well school hours are school hours. When you're a student teacher you know you can't do that at 7 to 85 p.m. You're gonna do it during the middle of the day and that may mean doing your practice from 6 a.m in the morning to 8 a.m and then you're gonna go student teach and and you know but the coaches, the student athletes everyone that needs to work collaboratively to make that happen makes that happen. Nursing is another one that has an I know a lot of class conflicts but our student athletes are not being dissuaded from taking on some of these difficult majors there's a ton of STEM majors there's a ton of these you know really high workload cases. It's not like you're just coming here and taking you know whatever the easiest you know set of classes is and walking out with the degree that's not going to help you.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah, yeah no you make a really good point um and the our coaches are so supportive right of our students being able to study what they want um and being able to manage those conflicts that they might have with um being able to attend practice and we're I mean the students are appreciative of that we're appreciative of that and allowing them really to study whatever they want. The um the students do really study everything I would say and it's it mirrors out of what the university is. Fox is our more popular one I think we have about like 120 students that are in Fox. After that is the College of Public Health we have about I was just looking at the numbers recently like 80 or 90 students that are yeah in in that major um and then our smaller ones are the School of Tourism Hospitality management and engineering. So those are a little bit but still robust in the 40s. So um they really are uh studying lots of different things doing really cool things with the internship piece that I mentioned before and being able to um manage and balance everything. We do have education you have to go student teach during and then the students um down the street uh where some of our students are doing their student teaching is you know 8 to 3 p.m or 2 p.m so yeah you need to be make sure that you're in the classroom and you're getting that chance to experience that and figure out you know we've had some I always like to think of Annie Judge she was an education major she is an advisor in the resnic center currently right now a former field hockey student and she student taught and she had to miss practice and she figured out maybe that's not where I want to go. Maybe I want to work with college students, right? And so she is somebody that we hired two, three years ago and um has done phenomenal. She's really connected with the women's across student athletes and um the men's soccer students and the coaches and it's been really a great fit. But again having that opportunity to be able to study what you want to figure out what I do want to do and what I don't want to do is super helpful. And again the coaches are really understanding and accommodating um to some of those things too which we're appreciative of.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Well and you've also just mentioned a couple of names of folks that work in here that are also former student athletes former temple student athletes in particular and I think that helps underscore what we're talking about with relationships. It just helps to sit in that seat and know you've been there. And so I think that's that's really something cool. And so what that leads to the ability to be varied and to really dive in academically leads back to our student athlete showcase. And this is one of the really cool things and I think again for my 11 years now that I've been here the thing that I like the most are these great stories. We've seen you know major scholarship winners we've seen you know again the the ability for our student athletes to do things that were just kind of unheard of to me. I know yeah again I read books and wrote papers. So they're doing research and you know these undergraduate internships and and walking into these incredible full-time roles right out of college. And so the student athlete showcase is one of many things around this time of year as we're getting to graduation where I'm sure this is probably some of the most gratifying stuff that you get to be a part of is really seeing the fruits of all this labor. So just tell folks about what that is and maybe some of the cool things that have come up out of that over the the last couple years is this year three that we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yeah this is our third year doing the student athlete showcase and it's a great opportunity for the students to highlight the things that they're doing off the court, the strip, the field in research, civic engagement is one of the areas that we're going to look at this year social science research, student-led groups that's really a cool uh initiative that our students have been involved in with the support of Prince Moody who is an athletics um Morgan's message and student athlete safe space and SAC and the global owls so again student led groups and initiatives um will be uh I always enjoy that one to hear kind of what they're doing and how they're making an impact uh with the community and the student athlete community and so forth. We've had um entrepreneurship so that was last year that was really cool to hear some of the students that are really engaged in starting their own business and you know going that direction that's a grind that's a tough one to do and uh Coach Rich who is our women's basketball coach was phenomenal she was there to ask questions and then to serve as a mentor afterwards right and um give them some things to think about and next steps and contacts and so forth which is really a phenomenal connection for them to have um so there's some internship experiences that are just incredible. Annie was just sharing with me that Noray Sumner from men's soccer has landed an internship with FIFA this summer which is really incredible. So and um Drew Clark has something similar where he's working in Washington DC with the government and FIFA so they're doing some really amazing things these student athletes and so it's really exciting to be able to highlight that to the campus community and show that they're balancing their commitment to academics to athletics doing their sport and then also fitting an internship in there right and making sure that their professional growth and development is um front of mind and they're really focusing on that which is super cool. I don't know how they do it.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

I'm always like I didn't do any of this stuff when I was a student athlete like oh my God I didn't do any of it and I wasn't an athlete so impressed.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

I always tell the students during graduation that I'm always so impressed with um we ask a lot of them right we have programming related to career we have um a leadership academy obviously we have our advising pieces where we're asking them to come in we have community service and that civic engagement through athletics we have our student athlete affairs with Prince Moody putting on some programming so you know they do everything and um you know don't ever complain about it and and don't ever give a hard time most of the time and are really engaged and and you know we we have to push them a little bit sometimes right it gets a fatiguing at times um but they we ask a lot of them and they do a lot uh and it's just you know it's always so impressive I'm like oh gosh I wish I was like you when I was in college like oh kudos.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

You know just the stories that come out this time of year as we get closer to graduation you know uh you mentioned the career development piece the student athletes that are going on to to do great things and just encourage everyone to to keep your eyes open because we focus so much on the on-field results. It's just this is a great time of year to to look at the whole thing and I I want to end on one note because there is a name we've talked about a lot of different names and support uh but one name that we've kind of breezed past because it's in the name of the center is the Resnick Center. Nancy and Donald Reznick uh the formal name is the Academic Support Center for Student Athletes and and obviously you talk about all the support that the university has given you and given your staff and and given our student athletes uh obviously the the namesakes uh Nancy and Donald Resnick incredibly supportive active in their support uh active in their engagement uh with what we're doing here as well and probably would be remiss just not to mention them and and some of what they've been able to to contribute as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Yeah no they're phenomenal um I've had opportunity to have lunch with them a few times and it's so grateful for their support and um everything that they do to support the student athletes and how invested they are and that they um have helped to create this space for the student athletes that is meaningful, everlasting impactful for them. So we're grateful for everything that they have done and always look forward to seeing them. I know they're basketball at the basketball games frequently in the football games and supportive of the the student athletes um on and off the court field. So yeah we're really lucky that they invested in making sure that the student athletes have everything that they need to be successful in this beautiful space that again it's incredible. If you haven't come to the Resnick Center go check it out. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

It's not just a I mean obviously it it has a great impact academically but it's also just kind of like the hub for student athlete life on campus. It becomes kind of the the home base with now the student athlete lounge right above here. It's just like it's a neat central location in a university that can be you know scattered and you're walking across city blocks but you have one kind of central hub here is really I think you have a privileged spot to kind of see it all take place.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

So we do yeah we're uh we're fortunate that the students are in here you know the the amount of traffic that we have in this space is incredible and and the uh the obviously we're I always like to joke around but we're an academic space, right? But we're also like a social there's definitely some times where you have to let it go because I'm always like do schoolwork but we might have some students that are just chatting and hanging it out and taking a moment to either connect with teammates and one another or connecting with another team which is cool. So we're all in the same space which I think is amazing that those network those connections for um all of our student athletes right some institutions you might have football that's at a different space or you might have basketball or some of the other sports that are different location but we're all together up here and it really makes um a great space and a great collaboration and engagement and our students get to know each other which is um awesome.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Well just as uh I know you are impressed and awed by the work of our student athletes and what they're able to do uh we are by you and your staff and everything that you've accomplished it's I think the great jewel of temple and temple athletics and uh just wish you continued success and thanks for uh for for your time. This has been awesome.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

Yeah thank you I love the word jewel. I mean I could start using that one. Grab that from you here you go. Thanks so much, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

It was a pleasure all right that's this week's episode of the AlPod. I want to thank my guest Tara Evans. A reminder David Lippman and Amelia Wright will be back next week on the AlPod with an all new episode. I'll be back with you next Friday as we come down the home stretch of the spring 2026 semester. If you want to support the OLPOD please be sure to subscribe leave a rating most of all please tell your friends you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, anywhere you get your podcasts and of course follow us on Instagram at the OL Podcast. Special thanks to our AlPod team especially our executive producer Dan Lopaz I'm Kevin Cobb thanks so much for listening everyone and go out