Students from Westinghouse College Prep in Chicago, IL
attend a speaking event with Magic Johnson in February
College Prep Today
You may have heard some interesting developments in the world of college preparation lately, here are
two timely issues worthy of note as you prepare your student athletes for the next educational step.
—Meg Moody
“Demonstrated Interest”
This phrase is a hot topic in college admissions today; many
schools across the country are adding this variable in their admissions factoring. Lest we forget, colleges seek students who will be
successful and committed to their school for all four years (they
want this guaranteed tuition money!). To help guarantee this,
some schools are using data from electronic correspondence as
an indicator of an applicant’s “demonstrated interest”. What does
this mean? When your students sign up to receive information
from a school, that email address is logged into the school’s system and becomes a tool for admissions to “trace” that student’s
interest in the school. For instance, when your student gets an
email from admissions and clicks on “learn more”, this becomes a
note of “interest” for their file. The more a student “interacts” with
traceable communication (email clicks, Facebook “likes”, etc.), the
more “interest” they demonstrate in that school. If a student shows
a great deal of interest, so the logic goes, they are more likely to
accept an offer of admission and stay the course for all four years.
This is also known as “demonstrated enthusiasm to attend”.
What does this mean for me and my student
athletes?
Well, if they are applying to highly competitive
schools like the University of Virginia or Ivy
League institutions, this doesn’t mean much.
However, other schools are using this information
and your students should be well-aware of it. As
underclassmen, encourage your students to set
up a professional-looking email address that they
will use for communication with colleges (not the
“nickname” one they use to correspond with
friends!). Make sure they understand that clicks
and likes are mined as data sources and can help
them gain favor with many admissions offices.
Encourage them to interact frequently with their
top choice school(s)!
Read more about SAT Changes on page 2 . . .
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SAT Changes
Another recent news item about college preparation was the announcement from the College Board about major overhauls to the SAT test. This will affect your current freshman and all classes that follow, as it will begin in the spring of
2016. The biggest news is that they will be making the writing section optional. For those of us that work primarily with
student athletes, and the NCAA guidelines that only consider Math and Reading, this appropriately mirrors what’s really
deemed important for college athletes. Another welcome change is the announcement that the College Board is looking to
make SAT preparation more equitable. We all know that private SAT prep classes are expensive, and out-of-reach for
many of our students. To combat this accessibility issue, College Board is pairing with Khan Academy to roll out top-ofthe-line preparation materials at no cost. If you’re not already familiar with Khan Academy, you should be! It’s a wonderful resource for all academic topics. https://www.khanacademy.org/
The full list of changes can be found here: https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/redesign
AthLife Foundation
Annual Conference
Key Bridge Marriott: July 16th—19th
Arlington, VA
A reminder to all of our AthLife Foundation network schools that at
least two professionals from your program need to attend the conference. This event is vital for the success of your programs, your impact on the student-athletes, and peer networking! We look forward
to seeing everyone!
This year’s conference will include general programming and two
different breakout tracks: one for high-school professionals, and one
for college-level professionals. Look for our general programming to
highlight new and innovative ideas to bring to your study halls, programs, and efforts, and the annual check-in with Dr. Al Petipas
whose work on positive youth development is the very heart of our
platform. Our breakout tracks will be focused on peer-idea sharing
and specific topics that many of our veteran schools requested!
Registration info coming soon!
Virginia SAT Prep Provides Free
Workshop for Area Schools
AthLife Army schools in the DC-metro area
were the lucky recipients of an invitation to
join the innovative SAT Prep company, Turbo
Tutoring, for a free workshop on February 8,
2014. The workshop was held in partnership
with the Washington Redskins Charitable
Foundation’s (WRCF) Coaches in the Classroom program. The WRCF graciously gave
students and workshop leaders the use of the
football club’s team meeting room for the
event. It was an exciting location and participants left the workshop with a new perspective
on the test-taking experience thanks to the
energy and wisdom of the Turbo Tutoring educators, Dan Harris & Gregg Greentree.
Thank you,
Turbo Tutoring!
Newsletter Submissions or Ideas?
Email the Editor, Meg Moody!
[email protected]
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Conference Connection
After last summer’s AthLife Foundation conference, educators at
George Wythe High School in Richmond, VA were inspired so
much by the keynote speaker, Dr. Leonard Moore, that they created programming for their students in their Coaches in the
Classroom program based on his talk! Last fall, Neptine Paythress and Angela Cannady led their students in ten weekly sessions called “Soul Food”. The football and softball student
athletes each participated as they went through the ten topics that Dr. Moore highlights as problematic for African American
male student athletes (Ms. Paythress & Mrs. Cannady tweaked
content a bit for the female student athletes). After each session,
students were asked to write an essay based on that day’s workshop. One essay each session was selected as the “Soul Food
Athlete of the Week” and that winner was treated to a special
Soul Food lunch from a neighboring grocery store. At the end of
the sessions, Mrs. Cannady reports, “it was really a selfcleansing process that they all underwent, they felt better about
themselves after the 10 weeks,
and had more school pride”.
Want to learn more about Dr. Moore and his
keynote address from last year’s
conference?
Log on to the Resources page at
www.athlifefoundation.org and look under
the 2013 Conference Folder!
More from Richmond, VA! Here students from Armstrong
High School volunteer their time distributing water for the
UKROP 10k race. The race raises funds for Virginia
Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center.
Bravo to George Wythe for taking this conference connection
and making it work for their students!
In each newsletter, we highlight a book or
books that may benefit your students and
work! Email suggestions to the editor!
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
By Carol Dweck
From mindsetworks.com:
The “growth mindset” understanding of intelligence and abilities as
qualities we can develop, has
been shown over and over to
have powerful ramifications on
This book is very powerful for educators, parents, and coaches alike. I recommend it highly
as a quick read; but what I really find valuable is
the accompanying website mindsetworks.com,
where you can access free lesson plans and
learning activities that reinforce the concepts for
your students.
Check it out! www.mindsetworks.com
student motivation and learning,
and school success. When teachers and students focus on improvement rather than on whether
they're smart, kids learn a lot
more.
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Welcome, Hays Lodge Pole School!
A great addition to the AthLife Army, the Hays Lodge Pole School
in Hays, MT started strong this spring! The school’s “Warriors of
the 21st Century” Program is off and running with the girls and
boys basketball teams. Their program works conjunction with their
Graduation Matters program to support graduation activities and
goals. In April, the student athletes worked to create a Community
BBQ; and the academic-athletic coaches are working with Business Partnerships to create a mentorship/job-shadowing opportunity for their senior student athletes. Welcome to our network
Brandi, Lil Don, Violet and staff!
Heritage Helps Out
On Monday, March 31st, members of the Heritage High School Football team’s Coaches in the Classroom program in
Lynchburg, VA worked with Citizens for a Clean Lynchburg and their March on Litter. For the second straight year they
did a tire clean-up. Working for two miles, 20 players and 3 coaches removed tires and trash from the area that had been
illegally dumped.
A great use of
that athletic
strength!
Burton Student Athletes Learn & Lead in their Community
On April 3, Burton High School Student-Athlete Academy
students volunteered at Glide Memorial to feed the
homeless. This service learning project was done as part
of a larger project concerning the issue of homelessness
in their city of San Francisco, California. The project was
made possible by an AthLife Foundation matching grant
through the NFL Foundation! Students have been researching the issue and trying to raise awareness of the
problem amongst their school community.
They plan to launch a city-wide clean-up-the-streets day
to help keep their home city a healthy place to live. A
terrific example of connecting what you learn to the
greater world around you!
Burton HS students after volunteering to feed
the homeless of San Francisco
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Curtis HS Student Athletes Prepare for College
Student athletes at Curtis High School (Staten Island, NY)
spent a lot of time this spring thinking about their collegiate
futures. The school’s Forward PASS Program, hosted its first
annual Virtual College Night on March 5th. This event was an
interactive experience in which parents/guardians took on the
role of mentor with their children.
Together they completed activities related to the college admissions
process from the Knowhow2go.com mentor handbook. Next they
logged onto knowhow2go.com and took a virtual tour through their
campus visiting buildings such as the financial aid and admissions offices, as well as the student center. Dinner was served for all who attended and prized were raffled off; the night was a great success!
On April 3, the Forward
PASS Program followed up with another College Prep Program via Major
League Baseball’s NY Mets. They attended an event on college preparation stayed for a Mets game at CitiField on April 3. These are just some of
the great events happening with their Academic Coach, Joe Baratta.
Thanks for you wonderful and inspiring work Coach!
Highlights from the 1st Annual Spring Gala!
AthLife Foundation Honors Lynch, Johnson, & Bay Area Student-Athletes
Our first spring gala and fundraiser took place on Saturday, May 3rd at the JW Marriott Union Square in San Francisco.
The night featured sports legends and community heroes, past, present and future. The AthLife Youth Inspire Award was
presented tot the Fam 1st Family Foundation and co-founders, Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks Running back,
Marshawn Lynch, and San Francisco 49ers QB, Josh Johnson for their efforts in their hometown of Oakland.
Five student-athletes from Bay Area AthLife Army schools were awarded the first AthLife Youth Inspire Scholarships: Helen Ghebreyesus and Omar Benitez from Oakland
International High School/Soccer Without Borders; Deshan Nelson and Joseph Sanford
from McClymonds High School/SPAAT; and Fidel Dagatan from Burton High School/
Bayview Beacon. We are proud to support these students as they embark on their
post high school academic journeys!
Highlights from the night included original artwork from Marvel Custom Comics (above),
appearances by dinner committee members, four-time Super Bowl Champion and 49er Alumnus, Keena Turner, along
with former NBA star and Stanford Grad, Josh Childress. The evening was hosted by CBS College Football Analyst and
AthLife Foundation Board member, Aaron Taylor.
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Mid-Year Data
Thank you to everyone for participating in our midyear survey on Survey Monkey. And congratulations to our raffle winner, Angela Cannady! Here is a sampling of the information we were able to learn from you all—details like this are invaluable when we are talking about the mission and platform of the AthLife Foundation. We thank you all again!
See you July 16-19 in
Arlington, VA for our
Annual Conference!
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