Cal Poly student athletes will visit elementary and middle schools during winter quarter to educate kids about the importance of living healthy and productive lives.
Known locally as Adopt-A-School, the program began 12 years ago as the brainchild of the Cal Poly Athletics Department and Block P, Cal Poly’s student-athlete advisory committee.
Jason Namanny, the marketing and promotions assistant for the Cal Poly Athletics Department, said the program tries to get members from the 20 sports teams involved in public outreach.
“The purpose is to get our athletes out into the community and for them to reach out to the people that support Cal Poly Athletics. It’s a way for our athletes to give back to the people that come out to games and follow the sports,” Namanny said.
The program tries to work with the schools’ lesson plans so activities tie into what the children are currently learning. The most common type of event is an assembly, in which the athletes introduce themselves, talk about their particular sports and interests and answer questions.
Business senior and women’s basketball guard Tamara Wells has participated in the Adopt-A-School Program since her freshman year, said she was involved in an assembly at Templeton Middle School her freshman year with four other Cal Poly athletes.
“It was right before lunch and all the students were in this big room. The assembly informed them on topics like working hard in school, eating healthy and keeping their dreams alive. Basically just words of encouragement,” Wells said.
Cal Poly athletes also discuss topics such as staying fit, staying away from drugs and respecting authority figures and peers.
Shaun Russell, a Cal Poly athletic director, said that typically after the assemblies there is a question and answer portion during which the kids can ask the athletes anything they want.
“This is usually the time where students can ask the athletes questions about the individual sports. It can be anything, like, ‘How do you throw the baseball that hard?’” Russell said.
Other activities include individual classroom talks, group book readings and sports camps and clinics.
“The idea is to volunteer time with the students so that we can give to them and hopefully they can learn to give back as well. Everything is contagious, you know?” Wells said.
Wells, who is also currently a member of Block P, said that this year, they are putting in more effort to get athletes to participate.
“We are really trying to get more commitment from the athletes this year by saying, ‘When are you off season? Okay, then that’s when you’ll do it,’ instead of just waiting for people to step up and volunteer,” Wells said.
In the past years, about 50-60 percent of the varsity athletes have participated in the program, which comes out to about 225-230 athletes actively involved each year, Russell said.
The athletes participate on a volunteer basis, and how often they go depends on their school and sports schedules. If they go once, however, they generally end up going again, Russell said.
“Some of the athletes that are studying education are more into the education aspects than say an engineer, but we find that people from all majors become involved,” Russell said. “Some individuals just have that altruistic attitude and really like to get involved. It all depends on the athlete how many times they go.”
As far as getting the elementary and middle schools involved, letters were sent out to the principals of 55 schools. As of now, Santa Rosa Elementary, Nipomo Elementary, San Benito Elementary, Oceano Elementary, Cambria Elementary and Templeton Middle School have responded. Eight or 10 schools are currently on the radar, and about 20 schools total are anticipated, Namanny said.
Linda Guyton, the principal’s secretary at Nipomo Elementary School, said that the students and administration are very enthusiastic about participating in the program this year.
“It’s the first time that we will be doing the program with Cal Poly. It seems like a really great thing for our students to have these athletes to look up to and to see what they’ve accomplished. The students can set goals for themselves and use the athletes as an example,” Guyton said.
Russell said that since the children look up to the athletes, it creates a good opportunity to instill good life lessons in the younger students.
“The athletes are put on a pedestal. The kids look at them as idols, as students would look to a professional athlete if they came to our school,” Russell said.
While the younger students and the Cal Poly students might form a strong bond during their visits, Russell said that long-term relationships aren’t common since the student populations are constantly changing with incoming and graduating students.
“To say that the athletes build a long-term, pen pal relationship would be inaccurate. They do create a long-term relationship in the sense that the younger students follow the athletes throughout their careers, look up to them and take a greater interest in their lives,” Russell said.