1. Gar E. Kellom PhD Director, Student Support Services, Winona State University, Winona, MN Editor: Designing Effective Programs and Services for College Men, Jossey-Bass New Directions Series – 107 -2004 Editor: Engaging College Men, Men’s Studies Press, 2010
15. Augustana College Fraternity Alumni Network http://www.augustana.edu/fan Robert D Haak, Director Center for Vocational Reflection Becca Poock, FAN Coordinator Kevin Conte, Student Leader
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38. 1 st Conference of College Men’s Groups Working to Stop Violence
Approached new coach in December of 2007 – I attended his press conference, told him I had an opportunity that he may be interested in. We met two weeks later, talked about my grant proposal, and our head coach was quite interested. Selected the football team because of the large number of men that could be involved and because there was little participation from any of our men in the previous Lilly activities. I also focus on athletics because most if not all of our previous Lilly activities had not focused on athletics or student athletes. When I spoke with head coach, and the assistant coaches, and stated I wanted to focus my pilot project on the football team and student athletes, because of my perception of previous activities not being of much interest or focus for student athletes, the coaching staff was very interested. When I spoke with the head coach about my proposal, he shared with me his philosophy of developing whole player First Year: “Followership” Second Year: True Character Third Year: Leadership Forth Year: Service for the Common Good
Before vocational discernment can begin, male student-athletes need to understand false masculinities in order to comprehend the definition of true masculinity. Men are influenced by multiple forces that can pull them in the wrong direction at times. As a result, they can lose the ability to listen for their calling. Offering a new definition of masculinity will hopefully help the men participating in the grant to understand these outside forces, thereby enabling them to do some “imaginative listening” free of false masculinities. Our directed reading, Season of Life , will provide content for the structured discussions, reflections, and service opportunities. “ Season of Life” describes an unconventional way of coaching and offers an alternative view of the definition of masculinity. Joe Ehrmann, the influential coach of the Gilman Greyhounds who are highlighted in the story, discusses his position that many men are socialized to accept and to live out “false masculinities”. Ehrmann attributes “ false masculinity ” to three main issues: athletic ability sexual conquest economic success He believes that athletic ability serves as a means of elevating a boy to a man and contributes to his false sense of masculinity. Moreover, the male tends to base his value on athletic achievement. Secondly, Ehrmann continues by stating that sexual conquest legitimizes young men. Thirdly, Ehrmann argues that economic success gives young men a false notion power. Sadly, this power tends to lie in materialism and possessions, which inevitably sets men up to “compete with others for what they have” (Marx 73). Coach Ehrmann offers an alternative he calls “ Strategic Masculinity ” which consists of two components: Relationships - developing enduring relationships that are grounded in love and meaning. Athletic ability, power, prestige, and wealth mean nothing if we cannot build successful relationships with others. Discerning a cause higher than oneself - we need to think of others first; that we have to have a purpose beyond ourselves. Book was distributed to upper-class students in May of 2008 by the football coaching staff. First-year students received the book from the head coach when they came for summer registration, which I believe had a significant impact on the player as well as parents. Monthly discussions were headed up by either the head coach or one of the assistant coaches, and initially the team was broken up by class, we adjusted that and put the juniors and seniors together towards the end of the season. Discussion questions were pulled from the book, provided to all the coaches, and were centered around our head coache’s philosophy of “developing the whole player”: First Year: “Followership” Second Year: True Character Third Year: Leadership Forth Year: Service for the Common Good
At the Annual Conference on the College Male last year, we attended a workshop put on by the staff at Augustana College. Augustana currently has a project in which they called “Athletes Giving Back” that organizes service activities for student-athletes that better fit their season schedules, creates healthy competition, and positive recognition in addition to appropriate and timely reflection. With the endorsement of our Student Athlete Advisory Council and the athletic department, the grant implemented this project which involved both male and female student-athletes. It will include having teams decide as a group which service activities best meet their interest, sign up for these activities, and complete a reflection handout afterwards. Teams will compete against each other for points according to how many service hours they put in, which provides healthy competition. If student-athletes fill out the reflection handout, the team will receive an additional point/service hour. At the end of the year, points will be tallied, and the winning team will receive a pizza party, funded by the grant. Participants will also receive a t-shirt, which signifies their connection to the program and will advertise the program around campus. LASO Committee - collaboration between Counseling, AD office, Career Center, SAAC
During the month of January, Luther College has a three-week long January Term. This is a time where students take one course and when the typical academic workload is somewhat less time consuming. During the month of January, we will sponsor a supplementary dinner, show a feature film, have an informal discussion Movies will be selected from films listed on the PTEV web site ( http://www. PTEV.org ). We hosted two movie nights, and showed the following movies: Fight Club – questions were: What is the role of psychological exploration in discovering who one is called to be? Can one only find oneself when one is willing to lose everything? Can one who has not hit bottom discover her or his true way in life? Good Will Hunting – questions were: The movie also shows the young male culture of cruelty and demonstrates that the need to be tough -- to never show vulnerability, weakness, hurt, or sadness -- leads to a dead end. The movie shows loyalty and wanting the best for your friends -- the essence of a loving friendship. The script of Good Will Hunting raises some powerful and interesting questions, dealing with the realms of personal responsibility, taking control and deciding what you want from life. We asked the students who gets to decide what we “do”? What/who are important, appropriate influences as we think about our “calling”?
Dinner and discussion once a month (February, March, April) All 5 of the captains of the football team 5 underclassmen from the football team selected by the head coach. They were invited because of their potential leadership skills Head football coach and grant leader For each dinner an outside speaker is being invited. Each speaker has been given some reflective questions, and to talk about “their story”, share what shaped them as a young adult male, how they came to their “calling”, and what serving others has meant to them. We plan to invite a community leader from LaCrosse, Wisconsin who has run several successful businesses and has been heavily involved in community service including historical sustainability in the city of LaCrosse. He has agreed to come twice. We also plan to invite a recent Luther football alum.
Summer Read: LASO: “ it’s rewarding to see how taking just a little out of your own day can mean the world to someone else” “ I decided to join LASO to join my team in something bigger than us, to expand our team and look outside ourselves and use what we do in a bigger and positive manner” “ as athletes we are constantly in the public eye… LASO gives students the opportunity to be recognized for service and get the word out” Vocational Discernment Through Film Vocational Dinner Series
Collaboration Involving multiple offices (counseling, career center, athletic department, public information, publications) gets more of the community to buy into the program Relationship building – counseling with student-athletes, with coaching staff Where the men are It is important to go where the men are already gathering, whether it is on the field, in a lounge, go to where they are Go where they are at in relation to communication – young college men are comfortable with self-reflection, with watching a movie with “a bunch of other guys” then talking about it Common ground Working with the football team, it was clear they were more comfortable because they knew the team was reading the book (and the coaches), the team would come to the movie nights, the team would be at the dinners – “normalizes” the experience Safe Space Young men feel more comfortable in “spaces” where they have some level of mastery, such as reading, watching a movie with other men they know, with participating when there is a coach present. We need to be prepared to feel “less safe” if we want to reach men where they feel more safe – it will mean going to places (lounges after work, the field house) that may seem “out of the box” for us – I feel the young men know that, and it has an impact on them.
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