When I first wrote my goal statement for the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University back in September 2012, I anticipated that my professional goals would move forward swiftly and that my Master’s would only help to hasten the process. I began this program as a Volunteer Assistant Cross Country and Track and Field Coach at Michigan State, where I stayed in that capacity for two years. In the fall of 2013, I moved to Indianapolis and worked as a part-time Assistant Cross Country and Track and Field Coach at Butler University. After three years of seemingly dead-end roads, I accepted my first full-time coaching position at the University of Delaware. The whole process lead to a lot of questioning and doubt along the way.
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My goals have not changed; I still am working toward becoming a Director of Track and Field at a Division I program. I feel, however, that the MAED program has developed me as a leader. Upon entering the program, I thought that I was already well equipped to be a leader from my experience as a volunteer assistant. The courses I took instilled a new perspective on leadership and allowed me to form a stronger meaning of what it is to be a leader, as well as a follower. I feel I was a little naive prior to this program, but feel that this naivety was part of the learning process. The MAED program has prepared me and given me a skill set that many other candidates of whom I go up against for jobs may not have. My experience with this program has allowed me to understand more about myself and dig deeper into my goals in the coming future. I feel that I am prepared to take the next step and lead a group of athletes on my own. While I am not ready for the director position yet, I feel confident in taking on the challenge in the coming years.
I have also been able to define my goals more clearly than I was prior to this program. I simply stated that I wanted to become a Director of Track and Field with no intermediary steps to get there. I assumed that the benchmark for success was winning. Now I view my professional goals as a set of stairs, not an elevator, and am working on achieving the smaller step goals, such as finishing this program and obtaining my first full-time position, to obtain my larger goal. I also have come to define success differently and view coaching as more of a process. While I will need to have a level of success to be promoted to and accept higher level positions, I believe it is more important to develop each and every athlete as a whole person. I better understand that this may take time and may not always be a result on the track, but perhaps in the classroom or in another part of the athlete’s life. The MAED program has shown me that coaches, like educators, need to utilize different approaches to help athletes who are struggling succeed and grow. Just as I realized with my own personal goals, it may take little longer for some athletes than for others.
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