The Grizzlies Outstanding Leadership Program’s (GOLD) purpose is to encourage the personal and professional development of the student-athletes of Oakland University while accumulating experience in networking, leadership and community service.

The GOLD program was developed by the Oakland University Athletics Department in accordance with its core values of excellence, service, respect, accountability, discovery and integrity. The following domains, also known as the expectations of the OU student-athlete, sustain the program: academics, athletics, life skills and community outreach, meaningful relationships, leadership experience, compliance and career placement.

Evan Dermidoff, academic athletics advisor, recommended “to try it in your freshman or sophomore year. You will know after that first year if it’s something you want to continue or not.”

The guidelines of the program allow any student-athlete to participate if they are interested. Upon the completion of the program, one will have a portfolio which will show their academic, leadership and community service accomplishments. The portfolio also includes a cover page, cover letter and resume.

Athletes also write an essay, sharing their experience at Oakland University. The essay is not only included in the portfolio, but it is also be used as an example for future student-athletes. According to volleyball player Taylor Humm, “this is a great way for recruits to see what past Golden Grizzlies have done with their time at Oakland.”

“It will be a tool to help you land a job or get into graduate school,” Dermidoff said. “It will physically show employers and grad schools that you have done so much more during college than just being a student-athlete.”

For example, Humm landed an internship at Chrysler as a Powertrain Development Engineer and had the opportunity to bring her GOLD portfolio along with the resume.

“Looking back on my position at that time, I alone did not have enough automotive experience to be given this internship,” Humm said. ”I believe that because of my portfolio, I was given this opportunity because they saw from the GOLD program a candidate who was worthy of a chance to learn and grow their personal professional experience by demonstrating leadership, dedication and determination.”

Non-athlete students also benefit from the GOLD program.

“It is more of an indirect advantage,” tennis player Juliana Guevara said. “If student-athletes are trained to get involved, the entire community at Oakland University will benefit from committed leaders.”  

Despite all of the benefits and rewards of the Gold Program, the participation rates are very low.

“This is only the second year that we have done it, so in the past we have had approximately 15 seniors who graduate from the GOLD program,” said Holly Kerstner of Athletics Student Services. “That is approximately the top 12 percent of our student-athletes.”

The lack of involvement is the biggest challenge for the GOLD Program. Both Kerstner and Dermidoff agree the most important obstacle is the disinformation about the program. 

“So many of the student-athletes do not understand the details of the program,” Kerstner said.

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is working on the marketing strategy to solve the participation problem of the GOLD Program.

Humm, also the president of SAAC, said that “since the program is still in its development stage, we are spreading the word and creating value that is meaningful to student-athletes. As it continues to develop, we are sharing the program with other universities in the Horizon League to promote going above and beyond being just an athlete.”

It is also a matter of time to get the student-athletes on board with the program.

“It will take some time to establish a history and have examples for the student-athletes to reference,” Kerstner said, who is also the SAAC adviser.

To Humm, the focus should be the documentation and editing.

“At this point, we are experimenting with different ways of putting events, awards, and activities in the portfolio,” she said. “Another opportunity we have is to create groups of students to edit and review portfolios and stories of student athletes.”

Kerstner thinks the improvement should be done in the exposure of the portfolios.

“The improvements include having those examples set so the portfolios are accessible to everyone for view,” she said. “In addition to that, we will need to increase our communication so the student-athletes are more aware of the program.”

The Athletics Department wants to have as many students as possible valuing the program.

“We are hoping to develop in the future the quality over the quantity of participants in the program,” Humm said. “The challenge is to not have athletes complete the GOLD program just because they believe it will look great on their resume.

“It is important to have the participants have a true desire to excel and use this as an opportunity to create a well-documented portfolio and a great leadership piece to help promote themselves when the time comes to look for internships or go into the workforce.”