July 30, 2014
Courtney Wood and some of her students show off their Mizzou Tiger wristbands
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COLUMBIA, Mo. – For most student-athletes, the summer months serve as a time to get away, get rejuvenated, and get refocused for the year and season ahead. But for four Tigers, this summer took on a different meaning – service – as junior Lydia Ely (volleyball) and seniors Maggie Givens (track & field), Courtney Wood (cross country, track & field), and Tre Chambers (track & field) became Mizzou's first contingent of student-athletes to spend a month teaching in Vietnam as part of the Coach for College service-learning program.
“It's a three-week fully-immersed experience where they get to teach life skills to young Vietnamese children, and play sports with them,” Kim Lambert, the associate athletic director in charge of student-athlete development, said. “It really gives them a chance to get out of their comfort zone a little bit, still use their athletic skills, and give back to a country and learn about themselves, as well as learn about the importance of service learning and servant leadership.”
Coach for College was started in 2008 by Parker Goyer, a '07 Duke University graduate and member of their women's tennis team, through a fellowship with the Robertson Scholars Program. Goyer's summer spent traveling in Belize and Vietnam in 2007 sparked the idea of giving student-athletes an opportunity to use sport as a way to connect with youth in developing countries and help them realize the benefits of higher education.
Now, six years later, Coach for College serves four sites throughout two Vietnamese provinces and has served over 2,285 youths from 12 middle schools, and has hosted over 246 Vietnamese students from 12 universities and over 230 American student-athletes from 23 universities. The program is aimed for students from sixth to ninth grade, and teaches them basketball, soccer, volleyball, baseball/tennis, as well as classes in math, English, physics, biology, and life skills.
Mizzou joined the initiative in 2014 after Athletic Director Mike Alden met Goyer and discussed the exciting opportunities that this program opened for student-athletes. The Tigers join South Carolina as being the first two schools from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) to take part in the initiative.
“We really fell in love with the concept and the idea of being able to send our students to a place like Vietnam to serve,” Lambert said. “I think it's just an incredibly exciting opportunity. Not often do you get the chance to go abroad for three weeks and serve in this capacity with the backing of the athletic department. I think that's so powerful, to allow our students to get out of their day-to-day practice and class and go do something different, and use their talents and skills to serve and impact the lives of others.”
For Wood and Givens, inspiration came from their love of sports and the desire to teach and travel.
“During the summer when I go home to Branson (Mo.), I coach and work with kids on their fitness,” Givens said. “While I do enjoy doing that, I was ready for a change in scenery after four years. That is exactly what I got here! I also have a huge travel bug, and this seemed like a fun way to get a new cultural experience.”
Ely had the unique opportunity to sit down and discuss the program with Goyer during her time in Columbia.
“I think that, just hearing Parker in-person and talking to the source, was just really cool for me,” Ely said. “Just seeing her light up about it; whenever you talk to someone and they're in the element about something, it just made me realize that I wanted a taste of this. She seemed so happy about it.”
She wasted no time in signing up, and was the first Mizzou student-athlete to embark on the journey as part of the first of four sessions held throughout the summer (May 21 – June 16). Unlike Givens and Wood, who worked in the central part of the country just outside the city of Da Nang during the third session, Ely worked with students in the southernmost province. There, Ely experienced life in a rural farming community with the lowest income per capita in the area.
“It was the most rural area that I've ever experienced, and the first week was just a culture-shock,” Ely said of their living conditions which included a Western toilet, but no running water or showers, and platform beds.
“It just puts so many things into perspective,” she went on to say, “It's 100-degrees and they have to ride an hour and a half on a rusted bike with no shoes, and they don't complain. It's so gratifying to see a kid so satisfied with what they have. And they're just so happy to go to school, see friends, and not be in the fields that day. It was cool to see youth not stuck to their phones and video games. It was so humbling to me, that is how life should be.”
Being in such a rural area, though, meant that the language barrier quickly became one of the biggest hurdles to overcome for the seven American coaches. Although the students knew a few basic words in English, the American coaches were very dependent on their eight bilingual Vietnamese counterparts to work as translators.
“We did learn some Vietnamese words to get their attention,” Ely said. “But even though we didn't have verbal communication with our students, I've never felt more close to kids that I've taught or coached before. It's so hard to describe, but you got to zone in on the kids' expressions. It's such an interesting thing – you really just appreciate having fun and being energetic."
Wood and Givens also had to deal with the language barrier, although as Givens noted, the students they worked with did enjoy practicing what English they did know. Like Ely, though, there is still that level of dependency on the Vietnamese coaches.
“They have the harder job,” Wood said. “They are constantly translating back and forth, even when they don't know what to do. They also have to deal with every problem the kids or us Americans have, since we can't talk directly to the kids.”
For all three, though, the schedule was much the same: start the day at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast, begin the morning session with the students at 7 a.m., break for lunch at noon, then begin again at 1 p.m. and go until 6 p.m. Then it was dinner and lesson planning for the following day.
Each American student-athlete is partnered with someone else from the U.S., along with two Vietnamese coaches, to lead one of the four teams of Vietnamese students (green, orange, red, or yellow). While they are responsible for teaching their respective team in the life skills class, they also take over one of the four sports (tennis/baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball) and four academic areas (English, physics, math, health) for the entire group.
“Every day felt like two days in one,” Ely said.
But, as Ely remembers, some of the best memories came from the few occasions when they deviated from the normal schedule.
“It was the raining season while we were there, and when it rains it just downpours. And there are tin roofs on the school, so if we were teaching and it started to rain, I couldn't even hear myself,” Ely said. “So we would all just go outside in the rain and they would just start playing in it, and those were some of the best moments – just running outside and getting completely soaking wet with the kids just playing tag and having fun. That eliminated all the communication barriers, just having fun.”
For all three, though, one of the most vivid memories came from the final day, and having to say goodbye.
“I think at the beginning we were all so stressed about not being able to talk to our kids and how we were supposed to connect with them. But your actions do speak louder than your words, and I think we all really learned that,” Ely said. “There was so much emotion that last day, and so much love. They brought us gifts. These kids that didn't have anything and they were bringing us their possessions; and it's really big that you can't decline a gift, because it's disrespectful. So giving gifts is a huge thing for them, and so some of these kids were bringing us origami hearts and stuff. That's something I'll really remember – how much love was there, and it was mutual."
Now, it's Tre Chambers' turn, as he departed for Da Nang and the summer's final session on July 16th.
For more information on Coach for College, please visit their website at CoachforCollege.org.
