West Long Branch, NJ — Monmouth Athletics concluded its final day of its five-week Summer Bridge program July 13.

The Summer Bridge program, facilitated by Senior Associate AD for Administration Lucy Mason, Assistant AD for NCAA Compliance Justin Jackson and Assistant AD for Academic Support and Student Development Eli Fisher entered its second year of its inception. The program, structured for freshmen student-athletes currently on campus for the summer, was designed to give student-athletes the tools and resources they need to be successful in their first year of college.

The program began June 16 and ran through July 13 with all freshmen football student-athletes participating. They concluded the last day with reflection presentations of what they learned throughout the summer course.

"We're really excited about how year two went," Mason said. "This was our opportunity to really put our mark on what the summer bridge experience can be. We had several conversations after last year and we met this year to really come up with a plan that we thought would be all encompassing and making sure we're touching all the points that's important to the students."

Incoming football freshman Benji Wilson spoke about his experience in front of his peers, expressing the impact the program had in his first few weeks, introducing him to campus resources and getting him familiar on where to go on campus for various needs that might occur throughout his first year.

"I feel like it really helped me acclimate myself to being a college athlete," he said. "I found out about a lot of our campus resources and who I can go and talk to. I was glad I took this class because it allowed me to find a lot of information that I will need throughout the season and I'm glad I found it before my first semester."
 

Throughout the six-week course, the group had speakers touch on variety of topics including financial literacy, Title IX, mental health, athletics and academic eligibility, career services and NIL.

"A big thing for us was taking them to the resource. It's one thing to say this is the resource, but to physically take them to where those resources were located and help them build those relationships on campus are really important because if they know the people they are much more willing and likely to utilize those resources," Mason said. "So, for us it became an opportunity to get a feel for who they are as individuals and really build their trust in us. Things like this is really important to the success that our academic and student development team can have."

The group was introduced to a variety of topics from guest speakers on campus that included Nina Anderson and Amy Arlequin who spoke upon Title IX, Callie Brown who touched on CPS and the transition into college, Harry Termyna who led a LinkedIn workshop and Tom Bieber who went through a library session. Other sessions included a nutrition workshop, eligibility conversation, a tour of Career Services with professional head shots taken, a conversation on NIL, social media and social impact and a CPS stress management workshop. The group also went out to local Special Needs Camp, Rising Trees to lend a hand during a community service event.

"It's a really short period so you can't fit everything in there but at least giving them a strong foundation as they go into the fall semester where you have to navigate a few more things: longer practices, more classes, more students on campus," said Mason, "So just trying to help give them a foundation to be successful for when they come back in the fall."
 

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