Student-Athlete Leadership Retreat

As promised, I am going to talk about the student- athlete leadership retreat that was held on Sunday, September 18. While we knew that something was planned, we had no idea what exactly. They wouldn’t tell us or our coaches, as it was meant to be a surprise. We were told to arrive at the Smith Center at 11:30am (only an hour after my team and I arrived back on campus after our red eye flight from San Diego) and grab a colored tshirt (the only thing we were told beforehand was the color of the team we were on- I was orange) from one of the tables set up in the gym. On the back of the shirts was the GW logo and the phrase "Our Nation's First President. Our University. Our Team." After all the athletes were changed into their new shirts and settled back in the bleachers, our new AD, Patrick Nero, spoke to us about the purpose of the day as well as leading us in our fight song with help from part of the colonial army. Immediately after we loaded into 9 coach buses and ventured to our mystery location for the day, which ended up being……...drum roll please…………Mount Vernon. And I don’t mean Mount Vernon as in the Vern (our other campus), but as in the Mount Vernon Estate that was owned by George Washington, located in Virginia.

It was finally revealed that the day would be filled with learning all about the man behind our university, which consisted of the museum, a tour of his mansion, and team-building/ leadership games. The reason behind Mount Vernon as the location? According to Nero, "In order to lay the foundation for our student-athletes to represent the George Washington University and wear his name across our uniforms, I thought it'd be beneficial for all of us to learn about the man." And it was beneficial. Even though my team and I were beyond tired from the weekend, we did learn a lot and even got to meet some athletes that we have never met before. Following all the fore mentioned activities, we were all graciously treated to a BBQ. By this time, it was already past 5pm and it was time to head back to campus and in my case, quickly do some homework and get some long-awaited sleep. If you want to read more about the day, here is the GWSports press release: GW Student-Athletes Learn Leadership Lessons from University Namesake

my orange team

*all photos/ video courtesy of gwsports.com*

AND HERE IS A VIDEO THAT GWSPORTS MADE ABOUT THE DAY (CHECK OUT THE SPEAKING APPEARANCE BY ONE OF MY ROOMMATES/TEAM CAPTAIN- SHE'S AWESOME):

On another volleyball note, my team and I have won our last 2 matches versus Loyola Maryland (on Wednesday) and versus Charlotte (Saturday night here at home). As of right now, our overall record is 12-5 and we are undefeated at home (7-0)!!! And this coming Friday, October 7, we will be trying to keep our streak alive with a home match against Dayton at 7pm (an A10 conference match). If you can please come support us as we take on the defending A10 conference champs!
Feel free to email me with any questions! cbgraf@gwmail.gwu.edu

-Christie