榴莲app官方网站入 has with the Accademia Europea di Firenze (AEF) and Pistoia Basket, a leading professional basketball organization in Italy. The collaboration unites education, sport and culture 鈥� reflecting the shared values of engagement, excellence and global learning among all three institutions.

This partnership strengthens 榴莲app官方网站入 commitment to experiential and global education. Students in 榴莲app官方网站入 in Florence, the university鈥檚 flagship study abroad program housed at AEF, will have the opportunity to intern with Pistoia Basket and gain insight into team operations, communication strategies and community engagement within a European sports context.

The initiative was developed in close collaboration with 榴莲app官方网站入 Department of Sport Management in the School of Communications, which played a central role in its creation. Associate Professor of Sport Management David Bockino, who joined the partnership鈥檚 Oct. 13 press conference virtually, later emphasized the program鈥檚 experiential approach.

鈥淪tudents will gain firsthand insight into how global sports organizations operate while living in one of the world鈥檚 most vibrant cultural settings,鈥� Bockino said. 鈥淭his is a unique opportunity to build practical skills, expand professional networks, and experience Italy well beyond the classroom.鈥�

Located in Tuscany, just 40 minutes from Florence by train, Pistoia carries a rich basketball history. The city was once home to a young Kobe Bryant while his father, Joe 鈥淛ellybean鈥� Bryant, played professional basketball there.

鈥淭his partnership brings together the best of what Elon, AEF and Pistoia Basket represent 鈥揺ducation, culture and community,鈥� said Nick Gozik, dean of global education, who also attended the press conference virtually. 鈥淭hrough sport, we can create powerful global learning opportunities that transcend the classroom.鈥�

He added that this work fits within 榴莲app官方网站入 and thus is central to the university鈥檚 mission and goals.

Kenn Gaither, dean of the School of Communications, added that international study complements 榴莲app官方网站入 emphasis on developing ethical, globally minded communicators.

鈥淪tudying abroad broadens a student鈥檚 perspective and builds essential skills 鈥� cultural fluency, curiosity and empathy 鈥撀爐hat make them stronger storytellers and communicators,鈥� Gaither said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited for our students to experience Italy firsthand and to bring those global insights back to their future studies and careers.鈥�

Both deans, who serve on AEF鈥檚 Academic Advisory Council, emphasized that the collaboration aligns with 榴莲app官方网站入 strategic goals to integrate global engagement, professional excellence, and experiential learning.

Beyond academics, the partnership aims to foster intercultural exchange and community-based learning through projects and events that connect students with the people of Pistoia. Together, Elon, AEF and Pistoia Basket are exploring new ways for education and athletics to collaborate in creating transformative global experiences.

The publication details the integration of the high-impact practices of mentoring, undergraduate research and global and intercultural learning. Co-edited by Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of psychology and director of 榴莲app官方网站入 Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE), with colleagues Dawn Whitehead of AAC&U, Susan Buck Sutton, emerita of Indiana University, Mary Price of the Forum on Education Abroad, Kate Patch of Grinnell College, and Kris Acheson of Purdue University, this volume explores the power of integrating these practices by tracing their origins and how institutions and individuals have integrated them. It provides models for adaptation in diverse institutional settings. Additionally, it highlights how MUR-GC can broaden access to global learning, encourage interdisciplinary perspectives, and ensure fair participation and ethical engagement. MUR-GC also creates valuable learning experiences for students, faculty, receiving communities, and host organizations.

In the publication’s foreword, AAC&U president Lynn Pasquerella noted that聽鈥渢he models of MUR-GC showcased here make evident their potential for profoundly impacting students, faculty, and institutions. Taken together, they compose a guide for future action and inquiry that empowers students as agents within an integrated ecosystem of knowledge needed to create and thrive in a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future.鈥�

The publication is the result of two think tanks and several years of collaborative research and writing by three multi-institutional teams.聽The report is co-authored by Elon colleagues Amy Allocco, professor of religious studies and director of the Multifaith Scholars Program, Eric Hall, professor of exercise science and director of the Undergraduate Research Program, and Jen Hamel, associate professor of biology and associate director of the Undergraduate Research Program.

Research on MUR-GC will advance as Vandermaas-Peeler, in her new role as a Senior Fellow of AAC&U, continues to collaborate with Dawn Whitehead,聽Vice President of the Office of Global Citizenship for Campus, Community, and Careers at AAC&U.

To ignite conversations centered on diversity, equity and inclusion, the School of Communications Inclusive Excellence Committee will host the first Spotlight on DEI event on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in Snow Family Grand Atrium.

The event, which runs from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m., will feature 12 roundtable discussions highlighting topics related to developing an equity mindset, advancing social justice, combating discrimination in today鈥檚 media industries, and other related subjects. There will also be four showcase tables spotlighting DEI-related accomplishments and initiatives in the School of Communications. A complete list of discussion topics and showcases is below. Beverage and snacks will be served.

鈥淭here are so many exciting things happening in the School of Communications that center on DEI,鈥� said Lee Bush, professor of strategic communications and chair of the Inclusive Excellence Committee. 鈥淭his includes student research, internships and service-learning opportunities; a new Inclusive Communications course and two new minors; DEI initiatives by student media and alumni; and mentorship opportunities like Women Influencers in Sport (WINS). We hope this event will spark ideas for students to find meaningful ways to further engage in DEI-related initiatives.鈥�

While the inaugural event was conceptualized by this year鈥檚 committee members, its roots trace back two years. In 2022, the committee developed a long-term DEI plan for the school, which was approved by the faculty in 2023. Part of the plan included creating programming where students from all majors and identities can come together, get to know each other, and share student experiences.

鈥淭he purpose of the event is to amplify DEI initiatives and contributions in the school and bring folks together to engage in DEI-related discussions,鈥� Bush said.

The year鈥檚 committee members include School of Communications faculty members Lorraine Ahearn, Mark Cryan, Young Do Kim, Karen Lindsey, Jessalyn Strauss and Bush (chair).

For more information, contact Bush at聽lbush3@elon.edu.

Table Topic Discussions

1. Alumni Spotlight: Madison Gilgo, Elon Year of Service Fellow, discusses her work with the Hardwood Initiative for community-led transformation at Impact Alamance 鈥� Madison Gilgo 鈥�23, Journalism and Strategic Communications double major
2. DEI in Community-Based/Service-Learning with Community Partners 鈥� Barbara Miller Gaither, Professor of Strategic Communications
3. Title IX: 50 Years of Progress for Women in Sport 鈥� Mark Cryan, Assistant Professor of Sport Management
4. Decoding Hollywood: Fighting the legal legacy of discrimination in today鈥檚 media industries 鈥� Sowjanya Kudva, Assistant Professor of Cinema & Television Arts
5. Internship Spotlight: John Luke Farrah discusses his work at the Beloved Community Center, a grassroots nonprofit working toward social equity through activism 鈥� John Luke Farrah 鈥�24, Journalism major
6. Developing an Equity Mindset: Becoming an equitable leader and problem solver 鈥� Naeemah Clark, Associate Provost for Academic Inclusive Excellence and Professor of Cinema & Television Arts
7. Beyond Parachute Storytelling: Understanding cultures and mitigating risks 鈥� Alex Luchsinger, Assistant Professor of Journalism
8. Live Oak Communications: Creating a DEI plan and working with diverse clients 鈥撀燞al Vincent, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Communications and Faculty Director of Live Oak Communications
9. International Student Spotlight: Navigating Across Cultures 鈥� Ana Safie 鈥�26, Strategic Communications and Communication Design double major; Hyemin Im 鈥�27, Cinema & Television Arts major
10. Small But Mighty: Understanding the experiences of Odyssey Scholars and Latinx students in the School of Communications 鈥� Vanessa Bravo, Professor of Strategic Communications, Chair of the Department of Strategic Communications
11. Communicating 榴莲app官方网站入 Health: Health literacy and health equity in the new Health Communications minor 鈥� Julie Lellis, Professor of Strategic Communications
12. Advancing Social Justice: How can the School of Communications advocate for social justice beyond our walls? 鈥� Kenn Gaither, Dean of the School of Communications

Showcase Tables

Spotlight on Student Scholarship

• Cracking the Alopecia Code: What does it take to represent the community online? 鈥� Samantha Katz 鈥�24, Cinema & Television Arts major
• Through the Lens of Migration: A study on how photojournalism in traditional media portrays the Mexican immigrant crisis 鈥� Ariella Mendal 鈥�24, Strategic Communications major
• Radical Social Media Managers: How Thai activism group Thalufah used Instagram to organize L猫se-majest茅 laws 鈥� Megan Curling 鈥�23, Journalism alumna and Youth Trustee on the Elon Board of Trustees
• Women and Genderqueer Individuals鈥� Mental Well-Being in the Music Industry 鈥� Veda Skog 鈥�24, Strategic Communications major

Global Film & Cultures Minor

• Kai Swanson, Assistant Professor of Cinema & Television Arts

WINS: Women Influencers in Sport

• Shaina Dabbs, Associate Professor of Sport Management

COM 2000, Inclusive Communications: Learn more about the new required course

• Karen Lindsey, Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications
• Lee Bush, Professor of Strategic Communications

Elon faculty Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Eric Hall, Amy Allocco and Jen Hamel, along with Laura Cruz (Penn State), Kate Patch (Grinnell College) and Jacqueline McLaughlin (Penn State University-Lehigh Valley) were co-authors for the publication. These authors also conducted the survey

This research working group was established to address gaps in the field identified in a 2020 think tank facilitated by CRGE, the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) and the Forum on Education Abroad. The research findings suggest that MUR-GC presents distinctive contexts, challenges, and opportunities for expansion of conventional mentoring practices. Indeed, the authors suggest that MUR-GC practices should not simply be a combination of mentoring practices from undergraduate research and global education, but rather a distinctive framework of its own.

The Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) featured the publication in a recent . The research findings and frameworks will also be explored in detail in a forthcoming AAC&U publication on MUR-GC, expected in November 2023.

The citation for the publication is as follows:

Cruz, L., Vandermaas鈥怭eeler, M., Hall, E. E., Allocco, A. L., Patch, K., Hamel, J., & McLaughlin, J. (2023). Mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts (MUR鈥怗C): An integrated model.聽New Directions for Teaching and Learning,聽2023(175), 29-39.

Corby chose to attend Elon after researching universities during his junior year of high school. He knew that he wanted a smaller school that offered Division I athletics and provided the opportunity to try new things. He preferred to be closer to his mother’s side of the family, so he wanted to go somewhere south of Washington, D.C.

“Elon checked all of the boxes and gave me scholarships to attend, so it was an easy choice,” said Corby.

Corby received an Elon Engagement Scholarship, one of several scholarships that is funded by annual gifts of any size from alumni, parents and other donors. These donations are combined to provide scholarships that help students like Corby attend Elon without the burden of high student debt.

While at Elon, Corby majored in policy studies and was part of the Legal Professional Scholars on campus. Outside of academics, he worked for residence life and the football team, participated in his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, and even served as Elon’s student body president during his senior year.

Corby knew that following graduation he wanted to do something big that would expand his horizons and his network. He wanted to gain teaching experience and also live abroad, and the offered an opportunity to do both.

“I studied policy studies while at Elon but found a passion for education later in my undergraduate career, so I wanted to capitalize on that and find opportunities to gain more experience within the education world. I also realized that after COVID, and not being able to move around much, traveling abroad would be a fantastic experience that I wanted to do sooner rather than later,” explained Corby.

For these reasons, he applied for to the Fulbright program during his senior year and was accepted to teach English to high school students in a small town in Bulgaria. Just a few months after graduation he began his work with the program, making a quick move to the town of Kardzhali in August 2022.

“My time as a Fulbright has been nothing short of amazing,” Corby said. “My cohort is 38 Americans, each in a different town or city. I teach roughly 20 hours per week and cover a wide range of subjects, catering my lessons to my students’ various English levels.”

His favorite part about teaching in Bulgaria, and something that surprised him, is the similarities he has seen across people of different cultures despite being 5,000 miles from home.

“There is way more tying us together than separating us,” he said, “My students in rural Bulgaria were not that different from my friends and me when we were in high school. Certain things transcend different cultures. My students are also addicted to their phones, care a lot about their appearances and love TikTok 鈥� things that American high schoolers can relate to.”

Corby has had the opportunity to coach the English Speech and Debate Team at the school, something he has found really rewarding. He started this team with support from a national program that is managed by a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Fulbright program and the U.S. Embassy.

“I was able to recruit 31 students to join the team, way more than I had expected,” he said. “No one on the team had ever debated before, but we ended up finishing ninth out of 61 teams in the national tournament and two of our members were awarded regional awards.”

Outside of his teaching and work through the Fulbright program, he has most enjoyed the opportunity to travel within the European Union, something he wouldn’t have had the chance to do otherwise. He has visited 11 countries in Europe and Asia for several days each, which has allowed him the time to dive into the culture, see the main sites and experience life there. His favorite cities were Oxford, Istanbul and Tel Aviv.

Although Corby hasn’t been out of school long, he says he has already has benefitted greatly from his broad range of experiences at Elon. His internships helped set him on the right track and grow professionally. While at Elon, he worked with a nonprofit based in St. Louis that helps change local politics. He worked at the Open Door Clinic of Alamance County through the Campus Alamance summer Internship Program. Both programs gave him more real-world experience outside of the classroom.

“The most rewarding part of my journey thus far has been getting to work with and learn from so many different types of colleagues, educators and people,” he said. “I feel so fortunate that my career and Elon have enabled me to meet such a diverse pool of people, all of whom have taught me something along the way.”

He credits Elon for preparing him for life after graduation. He appreciates the hands-on learning environment that Elon fosters, an environment that taught him to analyze things inside and outside of the classroom. He also appreciates that Elon taught him to be an active citizen and be engaged in his community, both values that have served him well during his time with the Fulbright program.

“I am very proud of Elon and all of the alumni that have walked under the oaks and throughout the famed buildings that we have on campus. Elon’s successful alumni base speaks to the university’s pursuit of excellence and the impact that our alma mater had on us, using what we learned to change the world. Elon has educators and administrators that care about the students and see them as more than just a person sitting behind a desk in a classroom. The community environment allows us to take risks, something that benefitted me and countless others,” explained Corby.

As for his future, Corby hopes to pursue a career in higher education following his Fulbright work. His ultimate goal would be to serve as a university president or chancellor one day, a goal that was solidified from his time as student body president working closely with President Connie Ledoux Book and members of Senior Staff.

“That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and something I will always cherish. The work I saw them do every day for 榴莲app官方网站入 is something I eventually want to do for a great university, too,” Corby said.

In this work, entitled 鈥淎 novel instrument for the community-centered assessment of outcomes resulting from visits by foreign student groups,鈥� the authors present the Community Benefit Scale (CBS), a novel assessment metric they created and have utilized in community partnerships Sri Lanka and India. In community-based global learning, program assessment often focuses on student outcomes, with little to no attention being given to the benefits or harms the partner community experienced because of hosting a visiting student group. The CBS fills an important gap by providing a tool that centers the voices, views, opinions, and goals of community members in program evaluation and assessment.

The abstract for the article is as follows: 鈥淎cademic institutions in the United States have increasingly emphasized Community-Based Global Learning (CBGL) programs within international contexts. These programs are assumed to have positive outcomes, but often lack substantive assessment data to support their claims. Although meaningful program evaluation has increasingly become a priority, these investigations frequently overlook the views, opinions and goals of community organizations and community members. At present, few brief quantitative instruments are available to assess higher education CBGL project outcomes from the perspective of community partners. Here we detail the initial use of the Community Benefit Survey (CBS), a novel 17-item instrument designed to help fill this gap, within the context of a unique CBGL program in rural Sri Lanka. The CBS demonstrated value in facilitating equitable community assessment and centering the voices of community members. The CBS possesses significant utility in describing the benefits of student group/community partnerships and can be generalized for use across a wide variety of domestic and international contexts.鈥�

The full-text of this article is available聽

The full citation for this article is: Gendle, M. H., Senadeera, B., Tapler, A. 2023. A Novel Instrument for the Community-Centered Assessment of Outcomes Resulting from Visits by Foreign Student Groups. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 16:1, 1鈥�9. https://doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v16i1.8428

The Class of 2023 graduate already thought that studying abroad would be difficult for him to tie into his studies, but he found a winter term trip to Panama that was a perfect fit.

Majoring in biology with a minor in neuroscience, he wanted something that would expand his hands-on research skills. The trip鈥檚 purpose was to record data at night, on and around an island in the middle of the Panama Canal, for a Smithsonian study of bats and their positioning on plants while locating insects.

When he arrived on the island 鈥� which was smaller than Elon’s campus 鈥� his main mode of transportation was by boat. This led to Murphy spending a lot of time on the water and also having the opportunity to record data on coral reefs for a module in the Caribbean Sea.聽In Panama, nature was his classroom and learning was hands-on, exactly what he was hoping to receive from his time abroad.

“I remember being in a small boat with my program, with the waves ranging from six to eight feet. The boat was jam-packed with all of our snorkeling gear,” Murphy said. “But also with our research equipment consisting of mallets, PVC pipe and waterproof paper, there was this moment where we all started singing sea shanties, including our professor as we rose up and down in the ocean, reassuring us that everything would be fine once we got to our destination.”

Murphy described getting into the ocean as an “out-of-body experience.”聽He said he felt like he was dreaming as the sun beamed down through the bluest parts of the water with fish swimming around him as he wrote his observations on his waterproof paper.聽Just the thought of having written underwater made him laugh.

When asked about his favorite experience, he said that writing underwater was the most memorable, but that it was impossible to choose a favorite because there were so many experiences packed into such a short period of time.

As the recipient of the Marvin and Eva Burke Clapp Odyssey Scholarship, Murphy’s time at Elon was made possible through the generosity of the Clapp family, who made a generous gift to Elon to endow the scholarship. He says being a part of the Odyssey Scholar program will forever be ingrained into his identity, just like his nickname “Murph.”

When first touring Elon with a friend, he said he wondered why everyone was so happy. He saw people laughing and high-fiving as they walked down North Williamson Avenue. But now, he looks back on that moment and thanks the Odyssey Program for giving him the opportunity to truly understand why 榴莲app官方网站入 is such a special place.

Scholarships and donor generosity gave Murphy the opportunity to attend Elon, but it also allowed him to gain valuable experience, covering the costs of his tuition so that study abroad became a reality.

Following his trip, Murphy returned to Elon ready to explore a new interest that was developed abroad 鈥� conservation. He also continues his passion for research at a veterinarian’s office in Greensboro where he uses lab equipment and even conducts surgeries to research heart worms, a chronic problem for domesticated animals. During his time at Elon, Murphy was also able to work as a teaching assistant for biodiversity and aquatic biology. He loves how the newly built Innovation Quad聽and its state-of-the-art equipment and technology has evolved STEM programs on campus, helping students follow the constant changes of the science world.

Beyond Panama, Murphy鈥檚 scholarship funding also took him and his cohort to Boston for a networking event where many of the scholars received job offers. He has found that the close-knit community of the Odyssey Program helped him take advantage of the opportunities given to him. He is so grateful for the donors that made his experience along with so many others possible.

鈥淒onations to Elon help people like me have the opportunity to travel and to meet people through these experiences who are going to be in our lives forever. These are the people who are going to survive through thick and thin with you. I am so grateful, and without the aid I received, it wouldn鈥檛 be possible to have the friends I have and to have accomplished all that I have here at Elon,” said Murphy.

Murphy is also grateful to his mentor Associate Professor of Biology Antonio Izzo for believing in him and helping him get his graduation plan back on track following the pandemic so that he would complete all of his requirements on time.

Post-grad, Murphy is taking a gap year to work in the research field before medical school, and he wants to get recertified as an EMT. One piece of advice he’d like to give current 榴莲app官方网站入 students is to take chances.

鈥淭his is supposed to be the best four years of your life so don鈥檛 mess it up by sitting around and not trying new opportunities while you are here.鈥�

For the past three years, the scholars have been involved in an invited partnership with two LGBTQIA2S+ organizations in Tamil-majority areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka and have been working to assist them in disseminating their personal narratives to a wider international audience. During this time, the scholars compiled and edited the narratives they collected into this comprehensive multimedia project.

Titled 鈥淪trength and Resilience: Lived LGBTQIA2S+ Experiences in Sri Lanka,鈥� this project uses an engaging mix of videos, text, audio clips and still photography to provide insight into the lived experiences of people living in the Tamil-majority cities of Jaffna and Batticaloa. This work serves as a capstone to the graduating cohort’s work in allyship with, and advocacy for, Sri Lankans that identify as LGBTQIA2S+.

Members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in Sri Lanka face substantial marginalization at both the hands of the state and civil society. Article 365 of the Sri Lankan Penal Code criminalizes same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults, and strict social norms related to binary gender roles, marriage and heterosexuality facilitate deeply entrenched discrimination against anyone who differs from these socially constructed norms. Sri Lankans who identify as LGBTQIA2S+ face frequent negative bias in the workplace and in their home communities and are often unjustly targeted and abused by police and other state actors.

Although members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in Sri Lanka face significant bias, discrimination and harassment, this multimedia project focuses on the strength, power and resilience of these community members against the challenges that they confront daily. This project is intended to both educate non-Sri Lankans regarding the lived experience of Tamil LGBTQIA2S+ community members and showcase their resistance against social, political and legal structures that seek to criminalize and diminish their diverse identities.

A brief note on language: Throughout the project, the term 鈥渜ueer鈥� is widely used, both in text and spoken words from the members of the Sri Lankan LGBTQIA2S+ community and 榴莲app官方网站入 students. In Sri Lanka, the English word 鈥渜ueer鈥� does not have a history of use as a pejorative. Rather, it is used as an affirming umbrella term, and is the self-descriptor preferred by the community members the Scholars partnered with.

Aaron Smith Jr. 鈥�13 first learned about 榴莲app官方网站入 through his high school basketball team at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Two former players of the high school, Monty Sanders 鈥�09 and John Charlesworth 鈥�10, were playing basketball for Elon at the time, and would often return to Cardinal Gibbons for scrimmages and mentor the younger players.

鈥淚t was because of them that I became interested in the Elon basketball program and started following their games,鈥� said Smith.

Smith鈥檚 lifelong dream was to play Division I collegiate basketball and follow in his mother鈥檚 footsteps by earning a degree in communications. When he and his family visited Elon, he knew that it was the place for him. 鈥淭he campus was, and still is, the most beautiful I had ever seen. 榴莲app官方网站入 instantly felt like home, and a place I felt would be a great learning environment,鈥� he said.

Smith dedicated his last two years of high school to academics and basketball to ensure that he would be able to attend Elon. His dream became a reality when he started college in the fall of 2009 and joined the men鈥檚 basketball team the same year.

鈥淚 had offers from other schools, but my focus was always on Elon,” Smith said. “I ended up being what is called a 鈥榩referred walk-on.’ I applied to Elon like everyone else and was accepted based upon my academics. I built a relationship with the coaching staff and players, and once I was on campus, I attended workouts with the team. Before the start of the season, I had to try out but I made the team my freshman year.鈥�

Smith went on to play basketball at Elon for all four years of his undergraduate career. As a student, he majored in strategic communications and served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He also participated in two internships, one with the Carolina Hurricanes and the other with the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, furthering his academic experience by assisting with their marketing.

Following graduation he pursued higher education for himself, earning a certificate of technical communication from Duke University in 2014 and a Master of Science degree in international business management from the University of East London in 2016, where he attended on a basketball scholarship.

Smith鈥檚 time in London deepened his love for basketball. He earned his level two U.K. coaching certification and became the head men鈥檚 basketball coach for the University of East London鈥檚 second team, while also playing professionally for the London Eastside Eagles and the East London All-Stars. While living abroad, he was able to keep in touch with his alma mater by being an active member of Elon’s London alumni chapter, helping organize events for the chapter from 2014 to 2016.

After earning his master鈥檚 degree he relocated to China, where he worked in several different jobs 鈥� head basketball coach for the Show 1 Sports youth academy, director of basketball operations and player development for Viking Sports, and teaching English part-time to children and young adults. He credits Elon for preparing him for living abroad following graduation. Particularly, his time studying abroad in 2011 with the basketball team, when he took a trip to Austria, Germany and Italy.

To this day, Smith says living and working in China was the most transformative experience of his life. While there, he was able to聽personally train individual athletes, one in particular that he will never forget. Smith trained this particular player from age 14 until he was 17. Smith was reminded of himself in the young man, as he strived for the same lifelong dream as Smith once did in high school.

“We worked tirelessly on his skills every week. He was the hardest working young player I鈥檝e come across in all my years of coaching,” Smith said. “Needless to say, when this young man got to play basketball at the University of Beijing and live out his lifelong dream, it was so rewarding for me. I still stay in touch with him and his family to this day.”

Smith loved working with young student-athletes so much that in 2017, he co-founded Rekruut Spot with his friend, Jack Anton. The company鈥檚 goal was to recruit post-graduate student-athletes to counsel them and secure higher education for them to compete on an international level with the possibility of becoming professional athletes.

For Smith and Anton, the one thing they couldn’t have predicted was the COVID-19 pandemic, which sadly forced the end of their business in 2020. Smith said the hardest part of his post-graduate life thus far has been dealing with the pandemic and the sudden changes that it caused. He had to pivot, and do so quickly.

Smith was still living in China when the pandemic started, and he hadn鈥檛 planned on leaving because it felt like home to him. However, travel restrictions were getting increasingly difficult to navigate, so Smith changed his plans and returned to the United States while he could.

鈥淭hings changed quickly, we were put on lockdown and I decided I needed to return to the U.S. But by late February there were hardly any flights from China to the States,” Smith said.

“Feeling hopeless I devised a plan, I found out there were still flights from China going to South Korea. So I packed as many of聽my belongings that I could fit in one suitcase, leaving many things behind. From South Korea I was able to fly back home to Atlanta and then to Raleigh,鈥� he added.

Once he returned home he had to pivot yet again, knowing that his career was also left behind in the aftermath of being uprooted.

鈥淚 started working in higher education in part due to my background, working with a lot of young people, but ultimately because of the pandemic. Once I left China I didn鈥檛 know what I was going to do,” he said.

In 2020, Smith returned to聽Cardinal Gibbons High School as a substitute teacher while also coaching AAU basketball for Pro Skills Basketball in Raleigh. “It was during this time that I decided higher ed would be a great fit for my skills and passions,” Smith said.

His first higher education role was at Hartwick College working as the Assistant Director of the Parent and Family Association, where he was responsible for managing parent and family initiatives to increase retention, parent affinity, volunteerism and philanthropy. While there, he also served as a mentor for a program that partnered minority students with minority faculty and staff members.

When an opportunity at St. Andrews University presented itself, Smith was elated to get that position. Now, closer to home and his family and friends, Smith is also able to work on something he is passionate about as the Regional Admissions Counselor, helping college applicants explore all opportunities available to them at the institution.

“My job is extremely rewarding because I鈥檓 out in the community interacting with young people and having a positive impact on their lives. It has always been my mission to be a positive role model, especially for young people of color,” said Smith.

In his new role, he carries with him all that he learned from Elon. Smith says there will always be a special place in his heart for his alma mater.聽

鈥淚 can speak knowledgeably to students and families about the type of personal attention you receive at a private institution thanks to my Elon experience. The tightknit family-like atmosphere, the active alumni network connections, and the list goes on,鈥� he said. 鈥淓lon accepts high quality, high character students. Combine that with the amazing professors, leadership, and it鈥檚 a recipe for success.鈥�

As for his future, Smith hopes to settle down and start a family of his own soon. He knows that the last few years didn’t go how he had envisioned because of the changes that the pandemic caused, but that ultimately he landed where he belongs.

“I believe in being the best version of yourself, putting God first, treating others with kindness, continuing to learn and working hard in something meaningful that makes you happy,” he said. “I think if you do those things you will end up where you are supposed to be.”聽

The World Percussion Ensemble at聽culminated the spring semester with a rousing drum performance at the Global Neighborhood for their 2023 Spring Festival. The drumming ensemble routinely performs rhythms from West Africa and the African Diaspora.

Members of the 2023 Elon World Percussion Ensemble inlcude: Cody Ciesilski, Victoria Setter, Asia Green, Carson Hirsch, Charlotte Kelly, Joey Krucke, Jacob Laxton, Wium Roets, and Rachel Simmons.

This concert presented rhythms Fe, Balakulandjan, Kuku as taught by grandmaster djembefola, Mamady Keita. A non-traditional rhythm, Fo Fo was played while the audience participated with dancing and clapping to close the show.

The Elon World Percussion is open to everyone both students and faculty, regardless of experience.

To join for the Fall of 2023, simply sign up for MUS1081A. No audition required, just the love of music or drumming. The group meetings on Thursdays, 5:30 to 7:10 p.m. and the class is worth 1 semester hour with expression credits. The ensemble is under the direction of founder and adjunct professor Jim Roberts and has been in existence since 2009.