Freshman Shaday Woolcock made a visit to McLendon Elementary School last week to participate in their career day. Woolcock took some time out of her busy schedule to write about her experience with the students of McLendon.
Growing up, I was always excited when we had a guest speaker come to our school to talk to me and my classmates. For one, it allowed us a break from school and the guest speakers always had fun things for us to do. In the midst of having fun, I learned a lot from the message the speaker was trying to get through to us and the fun, yet related activities we did, helped the message stick with me for years to come. So when I was asked by McLendon Elementary School to come out and speak on their career day, I was thrilled to say yes.
Of course the students were interested in my career being that I am a student-athlete. Everyone wanted to be in the gym. I spoke to them about some key factors of success in school such as making good grades, having a positive attitude, listening to instructors and attendance. During my speech, I explained how these factors help me on and off the court. For example, attendance is important for me because if I miss a class then I may miss some very important instructions, just as if I miss a basketball practice. Later I shared with them the importance of teamwork on the court and in the classroom. We talked about ways to communicate and get along with team members while doing a group project and we followed up with a game where the teachers picked kids who had been doing well in school to participate in a basketball exercise that required team work in order to win. Everyone wanted to participate and the kids really enjoyed the prizes but most importantly I think they understood the message I was trying to pass onto them. I enjoyed myself so much and will definitely plan on participating with their career day next year.
