Post on 21-Feb-2016
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A Co-Founder's Vision
by Cliff Parks
Scholar-Baller Image
As a high school counselor, I spend countless hours
speaking to athletes about the importance of college.
However, my words tend to fall on deaf ears because
many of these individuals perceive playing for
professional sports teams as one of the few viable paths
to upward mobility, School is rarely an option as most
of the students I converse with are victims of the external environment. They either fall prey
to the streets or solely emphasize athletics. What they tend to forget is that athletes and
academics work together.
Stigmatizing mass media messages reinforce a "dumb minority jock image" and perpetuate
prevalent accepted norms relating to the institutional notion of black intellectual inferiority. It
is difficult working with students that have this myth embedded in their minds, and
unrealistically dream of someday playing professional sports. For this reason Scholar Baller
IMAGE (Intellectual Messages in Athletics that Garner Excellence) curriculum intervention
program has been introduced.
The Scholar-Baller IMAGE curriculum has been designed as a resource tool for high school
administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. The program targets inner-city youth and
athletes abroad in a challenging manner that gives "scholar-ballers" the ability to create
powerful visions for the future by fusing academics with athletics. The curriculum focuses on
topics such as: Who Am I? Goal Setting/Vision, Academic Success ("Scholar-Baller") and
Race Relations.
The goal of Scholar-Baller IMAGE is to produce scholar athletes that have the ability to
become productive citizens in society. It is my hope that this curriculum will challenge inner-
city student athletes to place a higher emphasis on academics and use athletics as the vehicle
to prepare them for life. Lastly, this curriculum will Give Athletes a Mentality of Excellence.
It's GAME time!