April 4, 2006
Normal, Ill. -
Most faculty and staff at Illinois State focus on helping students find success during their four years at the university. Not Jane Fulton. She projects the lives of students a little further down the road.
"It's not about the four years they're here, it's about the 40 that they're not," said Fulton, assistant athletics director for academics and life skills at Illinois State. "We are trying to help student-athletes get the skills to be successful in life."
Fulton's leadership sets the pace at the Karin Bone Athletic Study Center, which helps all of the more than 350 Redbird student-athletes with their academic efforts and career plans. Some student-athletes just go to study in a welcoming, comfortable environment.
As one who believes the same teamwork that wins in sports, wins in life, Fulton shies away from taking credit for creating the Life Skills program that has helped rank Illinois State University above the national average for graduation rates for student-athletes, helped 18 student-athletes earn Bone Scholarships (the highest honor an ISU undergrad can receive) and helped 26 student-athletes receive academic all-America honors.
From the Karin Bone Study Center ... to that high graduation rate ... to record-breaking public service efforts by student-athletes, Illinois State has a student-athlete support system other universities try to imitate.
"No one can do this alone and it has taken everyone -- coaches, student-athletes and staff -- to get to where we are today with our program," Fulton said.
Since 1992, Fulton has been the hub of the wheel in developing Illinois State's life skills program for student-athletes. She may be right that the program couldn't be where it is today without a team, but she has been the constant, persistent force at the center of the effort.
Her team includes talented young people with plenty of energy, including stuffy center director Tim Schlosser, systems analyst Mark Walcott, academic services coordinator Brianne Rucks and life skills coordinator Reed McCluskey. Additionally, student-athletes get personal support four graduate assistants and three professional academic advisors--all of whom were college student-athletes themselves.
The Life Skills program offers more than just help with academics, it gives comfort to the student-athletes with any problem they may have, while helping them find solutions that work. It helps student-athletes learn to balance life. Junior Illinois State swimmer Casey McKittrick learned about the support right away.
"When I was a freshman they made sure to tell us, `This is your second family come with any problem you may have,'" McKittrick said. "They were right."
The program has inspired not only student-athletes to achieve more but volunteers to join as well. Dr. Jim Johnson, a retired Illinois State psychology professor who has been a volunteer consultant at the Study Center since 2003, believes Fulton is the hub of a strong wheel.
"Jane developed the whole thing," Johnson said. "They started out with a very small department and then it became evident that the kind of help that they were providing was very positive for student-athletes lives."
Community service is part of the program, which has evolved on its own and is now almost run completely by student-athletes through the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC). Each Redbird team chooses a community organization they want to support, they then volunteer their time to help achieve the goals of that organization.
"Since 2000, we've always had 1,000 hours or more of community service," Fulton said. "Our athletes are incredible now at what we're doing and how many hours we give back to the community."
This year, Redbird student-athletes flew past that annual goal of 1,000 hours in just one semester by supporting local causes and taking up broader ones too--like the Louisiana hurricane victims.
When Fulton began the Redbird Life Skills program, it was another a pioneering opportunity for Illinois State Athletics, just as coach Jill Hutchison was an innovator in developing women's basketball and coach Will Robinson paved the way for African-American college basketball coaches--both in the 1970s.
This trend of innovation and pioneering continues as Illinois State will be a pilot school for Scholar Baller, an NCAA-sponsored program. The Scholar Baller program motivates ISU football players to compete for points in educational and community service activities. The program already has been a huge success internally at Illinois State, leading to the highest team grade point average in Redbird football history.
"We will be one of the few schools in the country that will be in this study," said Fulton. "So were pretty excited about that and it makes academics competitive and fun and were pretty excited about that too."
Fulton's compassion for the success of student-athletes at Illinois State is unmistakable. Schlosser believes that the student-athletes really look up to Fulton, which is another reason the program is so successful.
"Student athletes at Illinois State know they have a friend and a leader that will always champion their cause," Schlosser said.
McKittrick met Fulton her freshman year and instantly saw guidance.
"She always wants to reach out to the students and make sure they're getting along with their classes and things are going well," McKittrick said.
In order for things to go well, the staff at the study center guides student-athletes by teaching responsibility.
"I am here to try and help students become good individuals," said Fulton. "And it's about ethics and integrity--and the minute that you break that yourself then you're not teaching anything."
For both Fulton and Johnson, a major reward of their job is seeing student-athletes who struggle at the start of their college careers, obtain the skills and support necessary to earn an Illinois State degree. Johnson especially enjoys watching the student-athletes he helps succeed, but he also enjoys simply working with the staff in the Student Study Center.
"Everyone here is good people, and Jane's criteria basically have fostered that," Johnson said. "Jane is a great example of a leader, she doesn't ask anyone to do something that she's not willing to do."
The close-knit relationships at the Karin Bone Athletic Student Study Center help make it so successful. Fulton's drive to motivate, inspire and nurture is just the beginning of the student-athletes' accomplishments in life ... the life that extends decades after college life.
