I want to share about the lack of leadership that I have seen through all of this. 

I have had opportunities leading up to this year to facilitate groups and be involved in decision making regarding Oregon State Basketball, but most recently I have been tasked with and had the opportunity to lead a group of representatives from all of the PAC-12 women’s basketball teams to do something that will hopefully bring us all together and show unity to people who are watching us and who are impacted by us.

With everything that is going on with social justice in our world and the disunity our Country is in, I was also seeing a lack of leadership and direction from our conference as a whole. I was finding that no one wanted to speak up because of the fear of saying the wrong thing, which then lead to no one stepping up or taking charge. Conversations were happening but not going anywhere and as a student athlete who feels strongly about this as well as having close friends who I consider family being directly affected by this I took it upon myself to get action started. I felt that doing something as a whole conference would be much more powerful than doing things as individual teams. We have the opportunity to compete in one of the best basketball conferences in American and have a stage with a lot of eyes on us. This provides us with a platform to reach many people and make a difference. I knew going into this that I wanted whatever we did to be unique as well as positive. After many conversations with friends and people I consider mentors I got the feeling that a lot of the disunity people are experiencing comes from negativity, a lot of hurt from the past, and a lack of love and joy in the world.

As a conference we have been going through the process of figuring out what we want PAC-12 women’s basketball to portray to others. Part of that has been working on a unified warm-up that every team will wear before each game to show our unity as a group even amidst the competition. The goal was for our warm-up shirt to unify us as and bring us together as a whole league. This opportunity to get a representative from each team together to discuss social justice and what our country is currently going through was an amazing learning experience for me, it brought up conversation that can be difficult to talk about at times and it allowed a safe space for people to express how they are feeling, and their ideas on how they want to express those feelings.

As student athletes competing at a very high level, we have a platform to use and we are an example to those who watch us. There are so many things people are dealing with right now and we need to take any opportunity we have to lead in a positive manner and push for change as well as equality. This experience has had a very big impact on me. Before expressing my idea which led to being the lead on this project, I was someone who was scared to speak up because I did not want to say the wrong thing or was afraid it was not my place. I have found that neither of those things are accurate and allies are needed through this. This is about everyone coming together and creating something bigger and stronger in order to create change.