Patriot League Best Practices: Colgate's Leadership Academy

What do you want to get out of your college experience? Or, better asked, what could you get out of this college experience that you wouldn't get elsewhere? That's a question I'd love for colleges and conferences to ask themselves as they evaluate their digital footprints. It ensures your time is well spent, and it ensures you get real value out of digital.

Colgate University gives us a glimpse of what could be...

Hit the Colgate Men's Basketball Page and note the icon in the lower left-hand corner of this image: Colgate Leadership Academy. Wow.

Before I even click in, I'm hyped. Leadership is a skill that you no-doubt need to succeed on the court. But it's also a skill you need to succeed in life - no matter if you're in the business world, academia, military, or if you're just trying to create a better life for your family. How you unite and create a vision can be the difference between success and less success.

Let's go deeper.

Clicking in takes us to the PDF release, shown below or here.

Let me highlight a critical excerpt:

"The Emerging Leaders Program is designed for a select group of “high potential”

sophomore and junior student-athletes. This program will provide these prospective

leaders with the insights, strategies and skills necessary to become effective leaders on their team, on campus, and in the community.

With the comprehensive scope and intensive depth of the programming being used, the Colgate Leadership Academy unequivocally distinguishes the Colgate Athletics

Department as having one of the best leadership development programs in collegiate

athletics. The Academy has been in place since Fall 2009."

There's a few gems in this release that need to be discussed.

1. This program aims to make you a great leader on the team, on campus, and in the community. So it is not just about athletics but rather about your development as an individual. Fantastic.
2. "One of the best leadership development programs in collegiate athletics." That is a line in the sand of their identity. LOVE it.
3. "Since Fall 2009." So this is now year 3 of this program. (Calendar year 3, School Year calendar 2) Meaning it is working and they are sticking with it as a part of identity and brand.

In sum, Colgate identified a critical need in development and is stating a drive to be the best in the world at this!

How could this be better? Simply put, we need stories. What, specifically, is it like? Do you interact with people from the real world, or is it with professors and coaches? Or all of the above? How has this changed the game for the student athletes who have gone into it? What do parents think of this? Or companies? Feels like there is depth here to really go into how leaders are molded at Colgate... and how that leads to success in many fronts. I'd just love to see a deeper look into the model.

Come back tomorrow as we continue rolling through a week of best practices in the Patriot League.

Don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy