I think the Coach for College program represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience another culture, help other people and gain a lot of personal growth. I mean what could be cooler than teaching important life lessons to a bunch of kids in a totally different country like Vietnam. I think whenever two groups of people with different backgrounds get together they can both learn a tremendous amount from each other. I think this experience provides for a fabulous opportunity to use sports as a vehicle to bring people and customs together. I think this opportunity represents the first step in my emersion into understanding world cultures. I want to participate in this program because I know that it could have a profound effect on me. I really want to do this program because I am so excited about the positive effect this experience could have on the Vietnamese, my peers and the Duke community. I think this will be an eye opening experience and want to be a part of it. Further, I think this program will challenge me in many ways, and I am ready to step up to the challenge. I fully expect this program to make me step out of my comfort zone, and am eagerly awaiting that challenge. I really hope this program is only the first, of many programs like this to come. Since I am only a freshman, I would love to help develop this program throughout my career at Duke.

I want to participate in the Coach for College program for many reasons. I would love the opportunity to share what I have learned over the last four years with younger student athletes, and I’m sure I would learn a lot from them, too. It is important to understand the cultures and mindsets of people who do not share a common background with Duke students, or American college students in general – the ability to connect with people, especially under unfamiliar circumstances, is a necessary skill in any career. Additionally, running kept me here in Durham and prevented me from going abroad, which I always wanted to do (and I’m sure this is the same for many student athletes nationwide). This new program will benefit student athletes because it will offer them a completely new perspective of athletics and life in general. Having the opportunity to participate in such a program, on the other side of the planet, will undoubtedly force them to think about what is important in their own lives. Students in Vietnam will benefit similarly. Intercultural communication may help the Vietnamese student athletes re-evaluate possibilities, such as university education, that they may have previously discounted. Hopefully the knowledge they gain about sports and higher education from Coach for College will enable them to make better informed decisions about their futures.

The Coach for College program is a great opportunity for me to grow as a person and to help other people. The people who participate in this program will have the opportunity to come in contact with people they would have never thought about. This program will open our eyes to another culture and enable us to understand people other than others who are like us. I'm very interested in meeting new and interesting people and it's in my nature to want to help, so I think this would be a great experience for me. Its one thing to want to improve the educational status of a people and another to have to do it alone. I think that by having this program, the Vietnamese people will have great support getting such a large project off the ground. We will bring a variety of ideas to the country, even more so because the participants will be from different backgrounds. New perspectives on things can heighten the possibility of finding several that could aid the successful completion of the project. It is my hope that by going to Vietnam, we could affect the people there by giving them the opportunities for a better future that we as student-athletes already enjoy. It would also create excitement within the community, and perhaps more people would want to get involved. Maybe coaching opportunities could stem from this program within the community.

I hope to attain a sense of the Vietnamese culture and bring what I have learned back with me and be able to share it with my family, friends and my community. In interacting with my fellow American student-athlete participants I hope to build a sense of camaraderie and friendship and hopefully share the same goals to apply our natural work ethics as athletes to this program and the Vietnam community. I anticipate that my interactions with the Vietnamese youth and volunteers will give me a sense of what they value and what type of goals they have for their future. I expect that this program will give me insight in what I would like to do when I am older. I would like to know how their government, religious beliefs and family values influence their attitudes, goals and aspirations. I think this will teach me to respect their differences from the American culture.

The Coach for College program provides an incredible opportunity for me to apply my knowledge, athletic ability and talents for a greater cause. It is exceptionally beneficial because it provides the chance to help children who are not as fortunate as I am. There are few opportunities for student-athletes to apply their athletic skills for something apart from sports competitions and the Coach for College program allows us to use our talents to help the children in Vietnam. I think that Coach for College will positively affect the rural host community by bringing certain traits that we personally value such as honor, respect and dedication. I would love to share my qualities with the other students, the athletes, local sports coaches and the community.

Jackie Fasano
Duke University

I would like to participate in the Coach for College program, because I want to be able to share with others the joys of being a student-athlete. With sports as such a large part of my life, I am excited to work with students of all ages in helping to make sports a larger part of their lives, and hope to illustrate for them the importance of higher education. This trip will allow me to broaden my scope on life, and recognize the world outside of the bubble in which I currently live. Sports are universal, and can allow us to connect with the students of Vietnam enabling us to learn from each other. I believe this program will not only give the students of Vietnam the opportunity to excel at sports, but also to realize the importance of education, and encourage extended education.

Emily McClintock
Duke University Swimming and Diving

I believe that Coach for College will empower the greater (entire) community by creating and legitimizing a community space for which sports can be play recreationally, developed competitively, and celebrated cross-culturally. A community-centered all-sports court will serve as an external tribute to the value of sport as a vehicle for educational opportunities and community building. The all-sports facility will empower the village by fostering hope for the youth—the future of the community. Sport is an ideal common ground for establishing hope for the youth of rural Vietnam because sport is a culturally cherished pastime that transcends language barriers and thus allows for cultural exchange between American student-athletes and Vietnamese youth.

I would love to be a part Coach for College because I love sports and I believe that sports teach many values that can be carried for the rest of a child’s life. I love coaching and teaching children new things and I think this would be a great way to impact someone’s life that I would have never had a chance to meet otherwise. I think going to Vietnam will help the American athletes appreciate everything that we are blessed with in America, especially in terms of our sports “culture”. I think the people in Vietnam will benefit from us in that we are experts in our “craft” and we all probably have a great deal of athletic knowledge to share. We also are doing this because we care and want to help.

Also, I want to learn how to better interact/teach/coach kids from all different backgrounds. I eventually want to be a coach and I believe this would help greatly. I think it will be a great way to learn about other American Student Athletes backgrounds and to learn more about their respected sports and schools. I hope I can learn more about the Vietnamese culture from the youth and volunteers and to understand what its like to live there (their beliefs, their sporting culture, the Vietnamese business culture, etc.)

I hope I can teach them that Americans are always striving to become the best (sports, music, business, etc.) and that we hold education and sports with the highest regard. However, I want them to realize that you can be successful in whatever you choose to do, it doesn’t matter if you play sports or have a good education; you just have to have a dream, make sure you make good decisions, and work hard. I want to help them understand that although sports are a great way to have fun and learn new life lessons, education is the most important, because knowledge is power.

I’ve always been told to look for a win-win situation; the Coach for College program is that situation. I can apply the years of training in education and athletics I’ve benefited from, and help pass what I know down to others. I can see this program being of great value to people in Vietnam because of the trickle-down effect of education. A handful of people who know how to apply to college, speak English, or assess their own health can help spread what we have taught to their family and their peers. If we achieve the goals of the program, we could see the relatively few people we have reached balloon into many more.

Ben
Duke University

I want to participate in this program because I love helping others. I’ve always been very active in community service projects, but have never ventured overseas to participate in a program such as this. I feel that this would be an amazing opportunity to experience a culture so unlike America, and would be life-changing. This trip will be beneficial for student athletes in general because it will take us out of our comfort zones. In college, most of us get so involved with our immediate surroundings, we forget that there is much more to this world then just our college campus and athletic team. By going abroad through this program, student-athletes will be able to broaden outlooks on life, and learn to appreciate all of the opportunities that we have been afforded in our own lives.
I hope to teach children in Vietnam the value of sports. Playing tennis has taught me how to compete, great sportsmanship, developed my people-skills, and improved upon my time-management, to name only a few. The lessons I learned by playing a sport will carry on with me for the rest of my life, and I hope to pass some of those lessons on to the children that I will be interacting with. I plan to use sports to get the children excited about education by emphasizing all the opportunities, both educationally and competitively, that can come if one dedicates themselves to a sport and works hard at it.

I would love the opportunity to participate in the Coach for College Program so that I can help teach the things I am most passionate about, sports and education, and most importantly the intersection of both. I want to bring my experiences from the past 16 years of playing competitive sports, while perusing a higher education to the college level at Duke, and hopefully share my unique story of how I got here. I want to participate so that I can teach kids to reach and achieve a higher education through sports and good physical fitness. I feel that it is important for kids to learn the skills necessary to be successful academically and athletically, and I want to teach how both these skills overlap into every area of there lives. After reading the description of this program, I knew this would be a great opportunity to not only immerse myself in a different culture but to help underprivileged children in another country. I feel this will be an amazing learning experience by bringing two cultures together and I know we can learn a lot from each other.
I know myself and other student athletes will benefit from this program and grow collectively and as individuals by contributing to the development of the kids we will be working with, and by submerging ourselves in a country in which most, including myself have never been before.
I think this program will benefit the kids and schools in Vietnam because it is a unique situation bringing educated, first class athletes to a developing country to teach the fundamental tools we as athletes used to excel to the highest level possible. Personally, I look forward to bring positive energy, enthusiasm and my own experiences to best help teach the people I will be working with.

When I first heard about Coach for College, I could not believe my luck. I have less than a year left in my sport, less than a year left before I am forced to join the real world. All of a sudden I find that all the time and energy I have put into soccer can be used to inspire not only the little kids in my own small community, but people on the other side of the world. It is an absolutely amazing opportunity for me - so much so that I chose to drop my aspirations for a summer internship in order to participate. That is why I think this is such an amazing program. I do not consider myself a huge philanthropist. When I graduate college I plan on finding a job and working my way up in my career. But Coach for College has allowed me not only an opportunity to visit a country I might have otherwise never seen, and not only a chance to teach/learn from another culture, but also an opportunity to give back to my sport. I fully believe that my participation in soccer has helped fine tune every great quality I have. It was my outlet for discovering who I am as a person and who I want to become. Coach for College has given me the opportunity to do one more amazing thing with my soccer before I must say goodbye to it forever.

I want to participate in the Coach for College program because I enjoy working with kids, playing sports, and traveling. I believe that I would enjoy participating in this program, and that I would learn a lot from living in a foreign country for several weeks. Being able to interact and learn from the people in Vietnam would enable me and other student-athletes to obtain a better perspective on the world. Likewise, the students, athletes, and coaches that I would interact with would have a chance to also gain a more worldly perspective by learning about US culture from the student-athletes. I feel that this “swap” of knowledge concerning our two very different cultures is mutually beneficial. I think we will really open up the world to people, especially those from the rural host community, by exposing them to ideas from Western culture. I feel that we could help students broaden their future horizons by discussing the importance of higher education. By encouraging education with those that we work with, we would be helping the country develop at a community level.

I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to participate in this program because I think that it would be great to give something to the less fortunate in the area of athletics since participating in a college athletic program has been so beneficial to me. I believe that this program will benefit all the students-athletes involved because we will be able to see the difference we make in the lives of the children of Vietnam. Also,
this program will benefit people in Vietnam because it will not only provide them with improved sports facilities and a more sound understanding of American athletics, but hopefully the Vietnamese students will also learn important life lessons along the way, leading to future success.

I want to participate in the Coach for College program because I want to apply what I have learned and extend the same sorts of athletic and academic opportunities to others who may not be as lucky as I have been. In a country like Vietnam, where there are significant barriers to educational opportunities, many individuals face incredible challenges when trying to obtain an adequate education that can enable them to realize their dreams and aspirations. Everyone deserves the chance to be educated. I believe that we as student-athletes are in a special position to use sports as a method of promoting education, and this program seems to offer a great way to do that. Therefore, my motivation includes the desire to help others gain greater access to educational opportunities and to utilize my personal academic and athletic experience to create a positive impact in the lives of others.

It is easy to get caught up in life here at Duke and forget about how fortunate I am. I’ve decided that I need a major reality check after my first year here at Duke. I am very interested in this program because it combines sports, community service, and children—three of my favorite things. I think that any student-athlete that partakes in this program will grow tremendously from this experience. From the potential constant rainy weather to the language barrier, every step of the way will be a challenge that will expose us to interesting obstacles that we will overcome. It will be a learning experience for all of us-- Vietnamese and American. We hope to teach the students and adults about the importance of sports and the importance of higher education. We have so much to offer because of our experience at Duke, and I hope to use this knowledge to benefit the lives of the Vietnamese. The fact that we could change the lives of children in a foreign country where most of us can not even understand the language is just unbelievable. This trip is destined to be beneficial for every person involved because of the commitment of people such as Parker and everyone else involved in the flawless planning.

As a student athlete, I understand how difficult it is to study abroad while in college. Coach for College gives Duke athletes this opportunity. Not only will the student-athletes be able to experience the culture, but they will also be volunteering in a developing country. The student-athletes will have an opportunity to conduct sports clinic and educate the Vietnamese youth on the importance of education. I do have the privilege of going on the advance planning trip in March. I know it will be a highlight of my college career and I am looking forward to sharing my experience with other athletes.

I look forward to participating in this program because I believe that it is a great opportunity to interact with new people in a different environment. I love the idea of promoting sports as a pathway for these children to strive toward their own betterment. As a child, I had participated in a National Youth Sports Program at a university in my home town and the experience has helped to foster my love of sports and has made a lasting impression on me. I know athletics have shaped me into the person that I am and have made me very successful thus far in my life. I appreciate the value of athletics as an avenue to self- improvement and higher education.
I have always felt a great connection to my sports and welcome any opportunity to contribute my skills and expertise in an effort to promote athletics in interested youth. The value to me personally comes from the feeling of well-being that I experience through sport activities and offering my services to others.
I believe that the Vietnamese rural children, high school and college students will benefit from exposure to athletes who have been successful in gaining access to higher education through sports. I hope that by our example and through our sports and educational workshops, we will inspire them to use their athletic interests and skills to better themselves and better their community. The assistance we provide will hopefully motivate our university partner and host community to seek to perpetuate the program so that its benefits may be shared and grow to encompass larger numbers of youth each year.

Having been personally involved in the planning process for this program, I cannot tell you how excited I am about it. I will be traveling to Vietnam for an advance planning trip over spring break so that we can give the athletes over the summer sessions a better idea of what Vietnam is going to be like and to make sure that we are fully prepared. I think this program provides a fantastic opportunity for building a global community. Sports are a universal language and this program provides a unique way of using sports to talk about education. By using college athletes, these students passion for athletics and academics are what is going to make this program so successful. I am thrilled to be involved and I know that the commitment of Parker and the other athletes towards making this program a success is great. Please help us make this program possible!

As a student-athlete at Duke, I am very excited about the opportunity to participate in the Coach for College program. I think this is a unique project with huge potential for success. One reason that I feel so passionately about this program is the way in which it benefits everyone involved. It provides student-athletes with a chance to simultaneously have an abroad experience and to engage in meaningful community service work. It also provides the Vietnamese youth with access to the resources and skills they need to succeed. All in all, I think Coach for College is a great program that is guaranteed to have a huge impact.

Mary Caroline Dyke
Duke University

Makerere University
Kampala, Uganda

Parker,your initiative is fantastic and I give you respect for that.Is it goin to be co-ordinated by Duke university alone or u gonna to ahead to involve other universities as well.You can look at ma entry(Hawks social change Basketball campaign) and see if we can partner in future.You can even ask some questions that I will answer.

You have fine plans for Coach for College, Parker, and I'm impressed with the detail of thought that you've invested in this. Many individuals start out with grand ambitions that are actually ill-formed and carelessly slapped together. None of that seems present here at all; in short, you've done your homework.

Many colleges and universities take pains to bring community and campus together. You've extended this to another level, however, through insisting that Duke's "community" is actually global. Further, you seem very determined to combine the best of both classroom lessons and fieldwork partnerships. Well done.

Steve Byars
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California