The bus rolled and headed to West Lafayette, Indiana for the team’s track & field outdoor championship. Her new high jump coach sat next to her on the bus and explained to her that she doesn't have to worry about her classes or being involved on campus as an activist. The only thing that she was supposed to focus on was her athletic performance. That went on to be Tayo’s last competition as she proceeded to quit the team. “When I realized that there was so little care for me as a student, I knew then that I had to quit,” says Tayo. Tayo Oladele-Ajose joined the University of Iowa’s track program at age 15. She skipped her junior and senior year of high school through a special program offered at the Blank Honors Center. At the time she decided to quit the track team she was as a sophomore in college. Despite being the youngest on her team …show more content…
Tayo never felt out of place. She got along with her teammates and everyone considered her just another athlete on the team. The only difference between her and her teammates was that Tayo had other interests besides track—interests such as her academics, and social justice. “I knew I was more than just a ‘student-athlete.’ I'm a multilingual aspiring engineer and an activist.
Standing up for the injustices in this world is what I am passionate about” says Tayo. Tayo studied Biomedical Engineering; Pre-Med and minored in Spanish while also being a part of the University of Iowa’s Student Government Diversity Chair during her time as a student-athlete. Her coaches and teammates didn't understand why she was so focused on other priorities besides track & field. After Tayo left the team she found herself having more time to study and more time to be involved around campus especially with activism. Certain activities that Tayo was involved in include the rally against the KKK statue that was placed at the Pentacrest. The following year she helped orchestrate a picture that was taken at the Pentacrest with students dressed in all black solidating their support for the black students who fought against the hate crimes against them at the University of Missouri. Furthermore, Tayo was very outspoken the following year when a UI student was beaten up what appeared at the time to be a hate
crime. Tayo thrived in the classroom keeping a grade point average no lower than 3.4 after she left the track team. She also thrived on student government during her senior year. Her administration accomplished a handful of duties to develop racial and gender equality at the university. Her administration advocated for more gender-neutral restrooms campus, resulting in a total of 147 single-use, gender-neutral restrooms. In addition to adding a new Cambus route and stop that takes students to and from the campus Cultural and Resource Centers. They also went on to advocate for the hiring of diverse faculty and staff, which resulted in this goal added to the 2016-2021 University Strategic Plan. She was also able to foster a collaboration with Dean of Students office to establish a trans student support fund. The trust fund helps transgender students who are transitioning obtain legal documents with their correct gender and preferred name. In a time when athletes are shamed for standing up for their political views, Tayo had no shame in choosing to be different. When asked why more student-athletes don’t get more involved and speak up for the injustices around campus, Tayo’s response was clear. “I think there is a fear of retribution from the coaches or pressure from the administration to ‘keep them (student-athletes) in check.’ Especially because athletics are sometimes the only way some of these students are able to attend a school, there is fear of financial or physical retribution.” What can the University of Iowa do differently to improve? “Hire more culturally competent and socially attuned coaches and faculty. Encourage coaches to encourage student-athletes to get involved in social issues instead of training them in a vacuum,” according to Tayo.
She led the team to a Conference championship and a State Championship. As a Senior she was the #1 player in the nation, averaged a triple double with 31 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists. For the second consecutive year in history, she led the team to a state championship and led the nation in scoring. All four years in high school she was selected to be on the all-state team, all-region team, and all-conference team. During the summers of her High School years she would continue practicing and playing for an AAU team.
Tayib is likely feeling as though he is a failure and disappointment to parents and that he is a failure at life in general (Broderick, 2014). Not only is he not living up to their expectations, but he keeps getting passed over for promotions at work, despite his dedication. Even so, he sticks with his same job, hoping one day that his good work will be noticed. Possibly one of Tayib’s problems is that he is not assertive enough when it comes to work. He lets his boss glaze over him and allows him to ignore his efforts without telling his boss how it truly impacts him. His coworkers and supervisor benefit from his conscientiousness without giving anything back. Furthermore, Tayib seems a bit
At the beginning of the novel, Taylor is intensely independent. She stands apart from the other high school girls at Pittman County. She is the only girl not wearing “beige or pink Bobbie Brooks matching sweater-and-skirt outfits” (5). She is determined to avoid teenage pregnancy, which is so common in her high school. She is the only girl brave enough to ask the science teacher for a job. Taylor believes that she can survive on her own. She finds herself a rickety car. It is a ’55 Volkswagen bug “with no windows to speak of, and no seat and no starter” (11-12). She learns how to push start it all by herself. Her mother helps her to be independent and to conquer her fears. Mrs. Greer lets the air out of one of the tires and also the spare, forcing Taylor to pump the tire herself despite her fear of exploding tires. Taylor learns that “nobody was goi...
"The Relationship between Athletics and Academic Achievement (Bowdoin, Gender and Women's Studies)." Bowdoin College. Mar. 2009. Web. 27 July 2011.
...who wronged Tayo and his friends profoundly, he chose not accomplish it. He was also able to see deeper into the event that are happening in the world and how everything always has purpose or a deeper meaning, realizing that finding out and correcting the faults within ourselves will solve humanity’s problems instead of blaming it on each other. Tayo’s finally knew himself and now knows the world itself.
But according to Dilley-Knoles in “Making the Grade: Academic Success in Today’s Athlete,” he seems to believe the total opposite. He points out “attention has not always been solely about games and competitions” apparently the “spotlight” has recently been “redirected to academics (Dilley-Knoles). Today, athletes wanting to participate in athletics have to meet specific criteria before being on a team of some sort in high-school (Dilley-Knoles). Knoles explains how over the last few years, the National Collegiate Athletic (NCAA) has created certain standards for academic performance for those students who are in sports (Dilley-Knoles). Certain programs have been created to reward sport teams that do well academically, and penalizing those that don’t (Dilley-Knoles). Although Gabby Douglass was the first women of color “of any nationality and the first African-American gymnast in Olympic history” to become the “Individual All-Around Champion,” I believe the photo shows that athletics was more important than academics (Mike). The young girl below her suggests that she’s more focused on school because she might have not had the same opportunity as Gabby did. Athletes, similar to Gabby, find the pursuit of athletics to be “lucrative” which is something that society values through money (Kannan). In “Which is more important, sports or academics, and how can the choice are
Born December 23, 1970, Nigo is the designer of a trendy clothing line. He worked for Popeye Magazine after studying fashion editing as one of his courses in college. He created the BAPE (The Bathing Ape) company and started to sell his camo hoodies and t-shirts in a small American store. He advertised by making a few pieces at a time and selling half and giving the other half to his A-lister friends such as Kanye West and Pharell Williams. Teens and other rappers really picked up in his line and he soon gained fame in the U.S. and his homeland Japan. Nigo then introduced the Bapesta, a new sneaker with a lighting zap and a star. It became very popular with collectors. It has declined among Americans because New York is where the only operational
Wangyot is a transgender female, so she was born a man but identified as a woman. Her school administration worked together to come up with a policy to allow Wangyot to compete during the school year because she wanted to participate in girl’s volleyball, girl’s basketball, and girl’s track. Wangyot decided she wanted to participate in these sports because she wanted to set an example for all other transgender students interested in being a student-athlete. In the state championship race, Wangyot placed third in one event and fifth in another. Wangyot showed that there is not much of an advantage to her because she did not win.
Out of the three cities; Constantinople, Timbuktu, and Seville, Timbuktu would provide me with the most enjoyable life in the fifteenth century. Timbuktu’s government is devoted to creating a wonderful place to live, providing their people with many different varieties of food, and having a good education system.
The start of the 2002 track season found me concerned with how I would perform. After a disastrous bout with mononucleosis ended my freshmen track season, the fear of failure weighed heavily on my mind. I set a goal for myself in order to maintain focus and to push myself like nothing else would. My goal for my sophomore track season was to become a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles. I worked hard everyday at practice and went the extra mile, like running every Sunday, to be just that much closer to reaching my goal. The thought of standing highest on the podium in the center of the field, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, overcame my thoughts of complaining every time we had a hard workout. When I closed my eyes, I pictured myself waiting in anticipation as other competitors names were called out, one by one, until finally, the booming voice announced over the loudspeaker, "...and in first place, your 2002 100 meter hurdle champion, from Hotchkiss, Connie Dawson." It was visions like these that drove me to work harder everyday.
As the Tiger rolled around, there arose a question of whether or not to keep the team together or break it up and give the two seniors a chance to compete in other individual events at regionals. I actually didn't know about this possibility until about five minutes before the race began on Saturday. We were all huddled together preparing for the start. Jeremy came up to Rodney and me and told us that if we didn't do well the team might be dropped. Kicking our motivational drive into high, the four of us focused on only one thing: running the time we all knew we could. Getting into the blocks I felt more ready than ever. At the sound of the gun, I shot out of the blocks. I sprinted around the track, concentrating on making a great hand-off.
"C'mon, Chris, you get in the shower first," Taylor ordered from the other bed. "You're already up." Chris conceded and worked his way to the shower. Everyone in the room knew it too, due to his grunting and whining under his breath. Soon enough he was out of the shower and so were Taylor, Anders, and I. We ate breakfast with the rest of the team downstairs in the hotel in silence. It was too early to talk or chat. Everyone knew that one thing was going to be on their minds: winning. It was not worth discussing, either. Everyone knew that our varsity eight was possibly the strongest that McCallie had ever had, and that we had a good chance of winning some gold medals that day, if not a great chance. We loaded on the bus like ants, noiselessly flowing into one little opening. The bus ride was silent all of the way over as well. Everyone's heads, looking intently forward, were slightly jostling along with the bumps in the road. Some tried to sleep, but the tension and excitement was too much for most of them to be successful.
Padre Pio, also known as Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, was a very humble Capuchin. A capuchin is someone who gives priority in their ministries to the two loves of St. Francis’s life, which are serving the poor and preaching the gospel. He was born as Francesco Forgione and was born to Giuseppa and Grazio Forgione, in the small town of Pietrelcina, Italy. He was born on May 25th, 1887. His entire family was greatly invested in God and had intense faith. When young Francisco was five years old, he had already dedicated his life to God. When he was younger, he showed a lot of spirit and loved God and his religion of Catholic Christianity. Padre Pio was blessed by God in many wonderful ways. He was blessed with gifts of, bilocation, prophecy,
... both received scholarships for their excellence in track, and football respectively. They hope to be able to combine the competition of sports, and the learning to provide a better education experience. Sean, Dave, and I were brought here by a common interest, a hobby. Our enjoyment and knowledge of computers, along with the aid of a college education, will one day turn a pastime into an enjoyable and highly profitable career.
As a child I enjoyed something almost every other youth did, running. So when deciding which extracurricular to participate in, running track seemed natural. Running track acted like a friend who could listen forever; whenever I was going through a rough patch a run on the track cooled me down and helped me think clearly. Running helped me develop confidence and determination that I could use both on and off the track. At races I acted as a companion, cheering my teammates to victory. Other times a leader; teaching lessons of perseverance and determination as was passed down from seniors to myself. My successes gave me the exhilarating feeling of winning a race. But more importantly my failures taught me to persevere and practice my hardest, because on the starting line your ethnicity, gender, or height matter very little. Running track gave many new experiences that forever shaped the person I am today. Although I am a member of many diverse communities...