Meredith Whitley, Ph.D., has worked with leaders and organizations across the United States and Africa to implement programs that engage underserved youth in sports in order to foster life skills.
This year’s Olympics听drew hundreds of athletes from 88 countries to compete in 98 events as millions more of us watched. The biennial event is one of the most vivid examples of the near universal appeal of sports and their potential to draw out our best attributes. Through her scholarship, Meredith Whitley, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the , coordinator of the School鈥檚 Sport-Based Youth Development specialization and a former college basketball player, has seen the power of sports to teach life lessons and transform lives.
Dr. Whitley has partnered with community leaders and organizations across the United States and Africa to implement sport-based youth development programs鈥攑rograms that engage underserved young people in sports in order to foster life skills. She has worked with refugee children and youth in Lansing, Michigan, with South African youth and with girls in Uganda. In each case, she and her colleagues听use sports to teach transferable skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication and perseverance. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an assumption often that what you learn in sports will transfer outside,鈥� Dr. Whitley says, 鈥渂ut if you don鈥檛 teach for transfer, it doesn鈥檛 automatically occur.鈥�
Dr. Whitley has learned the necessity and beauty of collaborating with community organizations and with undergraduate and graduate students. At Adelphi, she has been able to apply her knowledge and pass it on by creating an experiential learning course in which Adelphi students design, implement and evaluate a sport-based youth development program with the Southern Queens Park Association. 鈥淚t鈥檚 this wonderful opportunity to learn from each other,鈥� she says. Harnessing her international experience, Dr. Whitley will introduce another new course, Global Sport-Based Youth and Community Development. 鈥淚 hope to be able to connect my students with colleagues and peers around the world,鈥� she says.
Meredith Whitley, Ph.D., (center) collaborated with Alisha Johnson, M.S., at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (not pictured) and community leaders in Uganda to evaluate and expand sports
opportunities for girls.
For further information, please contact:
Todd Wilson
Strategic Communications Director听
p 鈥� 516.237.8634
e 鈥� twilson@adelphi.edu