Dec 11, 2007 8:00 AM

Faculty mentors offer vital support to student -athletes

This coming Saturday, Ashlea McLaughlin will fly to her native Long Island to spend the winter holiday with her family and friends. The brief visit will offer a respite before the first-year student-athlete returns to campus to face one of the busiest periods of her life.

From January through June, McLaughlin will travel on weekends to Illinois, Washington, Arkansas and other states for track meets. While striving for her personal best in the 200- and 400-meter events she will run, she’s also concerned as an English major about staying on top of her studies.

Fortunately, McLaughlin has help. She is part of a yearlong program that helps freshman athletes transition successfully to the rigors of campus life. Called "Community of Learning" (COL), the program pairs freshman football and track athletes with faculty members who mentor them on everything from time management and accountability to academic and personal issues.

Now in its second year, COL helps build vital connections between students and faculty, enhancing the academic achievements of athletes. The 2006-07 pilot program, for example, resulted in the most successful academic year for an incoming football class in recent history: Of the 20 football players participating in the fall quarter, as many as 15 made the athletics honor roll, which recognizes student-athletes who earn a GPA of 3.0 or above taking 12 units of coursework.

The program meets two goals: to inspire athletes academically, and to give faculty a glimpse of the enormously hectic lives of athletes, who usually rise at 6 a.m. to train and are up studying until as late as 10 p.m.

"When professors see a sleepy student in class, they go, ‘Oh, that’s an athlete,’ but they’re more sympathetic once they know what an athlete goes through," explained Sabrina Youmans, a learning specialist in the Intercollegiate Athletics Department.

It’s easy for athletes to get discouraged under such pressures. Faculty mentors can do much to keep their morale up.

"They are at the cusp of their adulthood and are exploring a whole new environment of the university," said Diane Mizrachi, a librarian at the College Library who is one of the program mentors for the second year running.

Developing a student-mentor rapport takes time, especially for students new to the Southern California region or those leaving home for the first time. As Mizrachi put it: "They are not ready to open up right away to someone who until five minutes ago was a complete stranger."

Despite their fine GPAs, not all athletes would shine academically without mentoring. "In a big place like UCLA, when students reach out to faculty, they get a better experience," said Donald Morrison, a professor at the Anderson School of Management who, as the faculty athletics representative for the past 14 years, has helped recruit many athletes to the university.

Last year, Morrison mentored Alterraun Verner, a math/applied science major who is so bright that Morrison is thinking about helping him get an internship with a business next summer.

"Most athletes compete with Ivy League-level students, and having a mentor gives them more self-confidence," said Morrison, adding: "I can help them with their comfort level."

Morrison, who teaches statistics, has gained several lifelong friendships with the athletes he has mentored over the years, including a world-champion shot-putter and a water polo goalie who went on to a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.

"I’m past the ordinary retirement age, and if I retired, I’d miss the teaching — but not as much as I’d miss being the faculty athletics representative," the professor said.

1