Leadership Development

A Commitment to Leadership Development: Creates an environment where student-athletes constantly feel supported to be great listeners, helpful teammates, and innovative leaders. The program allows student-athletes to understand leadership at every level and leverage that on and off the field, professionally and personally.

SAAC-led initiatives

– National Student-Athlete Day of Service
– Golden Dores Awards Reception
– NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign
– Peer Mentorship Program
– National Student-Athlete Day Celebration
– National Kindness Day
– Co-Sponsor with BSAG: Day of Impact National Women and Sports Day
– Jones Paideia Holiday Party

Vanderbilt Athlete Ally 

Vanderbilt Athlete Ally Chapter was established in the 2022-2023 school year. In summer of 2022 Sarah Marvin attended Athlete Ally Leadership Summit to then establish the chapter within Vanderbilt Athletics. It’s inaugural year Vanderbilt Athlete Ally completed the following initiatives:
– Pride Games: Women’s Basketball promotion, Track & Field, Lacrosse
– Pizza & Pronouns activism event
– How to Be An Ally: Student-Athlete PRIDE training
– Take a Break with Athlete Ally: Study Break
– Social Impact: Student-Athletes, log your Impact time through Helper Helper click here.

Be An Anchor & Beyond the Game

Be An Anchor
Be An Anchor is a leadership training program made up for nominated representatives from each sport. Vanderbilt Student-Athlete Development provides curriculum that addresses timeless life and sports leadership skills in an engaging, memorable way for the student-athletes.

Be An Anchor is the first step of Vanderbilt Athletics overall leadership development programming. Student-athletes create a working definition of leadership, participate in listening activities, and discuss their values, ultimately debriefing how those are guiding principles for how they understand their leadership practice.

Consequently, student-athletes are able to use this introspective work in mentoring sessions with senior administration and faculty. The purpose of these meetings is to carve out space for seasoned and budding leaders to exchange stories, wisdom, and experience. As a part of Vanderbilt’s goal of cross-campus collaboration, this will allow student-athletes to have a deeper sense of commitment to other parts of their campus community as well as the athletic community.

Beyond the Game
Beginning as a pilot program for Vanderbilt’s Football Program, Beyond the Game with Pepsi flourished into a leadership development speaker series. Student-athletes that graduated from the Be An Anchor program take advantage of this opportunity to expand their network both with industry professionals and other Nashville-based colleges: Belmont, Fisk, Lipscomb, and Tennessee State University.