BLUE - University of Delaware Athletics

Building Leaders Utilizing Education (BLUE) is an award-winning four-year educational curriculum supporting our student-athletes’ transition into their collegiate experience through their transition out of sport after graduation. The program outcomes include Developing Leaders; Promoting Lifelong Health & Wellbeing; and Optimizing Career Readiness & Lifelong Employability.

All student-athletes and spirit team members participate in a number of programs, workshops, and activities to assist them in becoming their best selves as Blue Hens now and after they graduate.

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NIL related education is built into the BLUE curriculum. The following programs provide interactive experiences and real-life readiness tools and skills:

Personal Brand

Elevator pitch
Social media

Financial literacy

Budgeting
Savings Interest
Scams and other risks

Networking

Elevator pitch
Alumni/donor/employer engagement

Career Advising

Career exploration project

Employer Engagement Opportunities

Informational interviews
Mentor Program through SAAC

Personal leadership skills development

Values
Goal-setting
Communication
SWOT exercise
Transition and purpose

Exposure to entrepreneurship

2021-22 Student-Athlete Success Staff Banner

Back in 2016, the Director of Athletics and the Vice President for Student Life crafted a charge that initiated a large-scale critical thinking process around student-athlete development programming and campus connections and energized several critical partnerships that are deeper and stronger today within Student Life, faculty, and important community partners.

That effort allowed us to launch the Building Leaders Utilizing Education (BLUE) in 2017. The BLUE program creates a framework that allows for intentional connections between the academic and athletic experiences, and is the embodiment of the commitment Athletics has to being a part of the education of UD students.

BLUE learning outcomes include: developing leaders; promoting lifelong health and wellbeing after sport; and maximizing career readiness after UD. All student-athletes, spirit team members, and club sport leaders participate annually in the program. The first experience within BLUE is the student’s 1- or 2-credit FYE/FYS course which exposes all UD students to the college transition and fundamental education for their personal success and wellbeing. In the years following, each class completes life skills, leadership, and career readiness programming aimed at continued development toward the overall outcomes.

In Fall 2020, we were fortunate to establish a BLUE module on Canvas as a “special term” program that will capture all of the educational materials and personal work that our students are doing within the program, allowing for better reflection, assessment, and growth from the program curriculum. Now in its fourth year, the program is about to graduate its first class in Spring 2021. Our recent graduates are already sharing with us what this program has done for them professionally - for example, the financial program presented by Lerner College partners has students apply a budgeting exercise to their potential starting salaries; and they report feeling well prepared to navigate a workplace - that looks a lot different than their locker room and classrooms at UD - to make new connections and manage others. As we continue to evaluate the program over time, we will have more post-graduate data about the program’s impact on a student’s life as an alum. The programs and our campus facilitators expose Blue Hen student-athletes to so many more University of Delaware people and resources, like experts in Lerner College, Horn Entrepreneurship, CCSD, Student Wellness and Health Promotion, as well as the Career Center and Horn’s Venture Development Center. This connects the value of BLUE so easily to their academic experience and their overall Delaware experience.

With an increased investment in their experience at the University of Delaware as student-athletes, we are beginning to see the student-athlete graduate as a more substantial part of the department and campus community. They are attesting to their pride in their degree and for what UD has done for them as they begin their professional careers. In turn, they come back. They participate in alumni activities. They participate in campus activities and in department programming. They hire more Blue Hens. This is the beautiful cycle of development, engagement and impact as a Blue Hen student-athlete.