Cross Country Athletes Heading to Leadership Forum

Leadership is not something that Emory & Henry students Keran Billaud and Hannah Sydnor-Greenberg run from.

Because of their outstanding leadership on the field, the cross country stars have been chosen to represent the college at the inaugural NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum being held October 21-24 at the Disney Contemporary Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Billaud and Sydnor-Greenberg will join other student-athletes, coaches and administrators from the Region 2 area which includes over 200 Division I, II and III institutions located in the southern region of the country.

The Leadership Forum is open to all institutions in the identified region, and each institution is allowed to register two student-athletes for this opportunity.

"I am looking forward to exchanging ideas and networking with other representatives from around the nation," said Billaud, a junior from Dublin, Va. "I want to be able to bring back ideas from this conference that our college’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SACC) can implement in order to better our overall student-athlete environment."

The forum will focus on ways to clarify individual values, discuss issues affecting student-athletes today, and explore the role of service in leadership.

In 2002 the NCAA began divisional regionally based Leadership Conferences for Division I, II and III student-athletes, coaches and administrators.

This month’s meeting will be the first time that the Division I, II and III Leadership Programs will take place at one site on the same weekend.

"This college has already given me so much as far as education, work experience and broadening my horizons," Billaud continued. "I am thrilled to have the honor of representing this grand institution at the NCAA Student-Leadership Forum."

At the completion of the leadership forum it is the goal for those in attendance to take what they have learned to help improve communication between student-athletes, coaches and administrators, gain ideas on how to improve campus communication and establish an inter-conference and regional network of peers and mentors.

Head Women’s Soccer Coach Anna Baker is the E&H advisor for SACC, and says the committee would like to send two student-athletes to the Leadership Forum every year.