{"id":201491,"date":"2017-10-05T11:42:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=201491"},"modified":"2023-07-19T11:48:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T15:48:51","slug":"neag-school-hosts-global-sports-mentoring-program-emerging-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/10\/neag-school-hosts-global-sports-mentoring-program-emerging-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Neag School Hosts Global Sports Mentoring Program Emerging Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Global Sports Mentoring Program<\/a>\u00a0(GSMP)\u2019s\u00a0Empower Women Through Sports Initiative<\/a>\u00a0is an international initiative co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and espnW that partners emerging female leaders from 17 countries with leading executives and experts in the U.S. sports industry. For the second consecutive year, Neag School faculty members Jennie McGarry and Laura Burton will be serving in the coming weeks as hosts.<\/p>\n

Now in its sixth year, Empower Women Through Sports recognizes female achievement in sport leadership and aims to empower these emerging leaders to serve their local communities through increasing access to, and opportunities for, women and girls to participate in sports \u2014 and, ultimately, ignite change as an ambassador for female athletes around the world.<\/p>\n

McGarry<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Burton<\/a>, both professors in the Neag School\u2019s Department of Educational Leadership, were invited back to GSMP to serve as 2017 program mentors for emerging leader Agnes Baluka Masajja, sports tutor at Uganda\u2019s Busitema University and head of the Education Commission with the Association of Uganda University Sports. Baluka Masajja is one of 17 women tapped as 2017 GSMP emerging leaders, all of whom have three or more years of professional or volunteer experience with a sport-based development organization. Each selected emerging leader uses this opportunity to explore a key challenge facing girls and women or people with disabilities in her home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sports has done for me I feel it can do for girls throughout Uganda.\u00a0\u2026 Sports becomes a platform for a bigger conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Agnes Baluka Masajja,<\/i><\/p>\n

2017 Global Sports Mentoring Program Emerging Leader<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018This is my destiny\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Baluka Masajja has always been a natural when it came to sports. She excelled in all her athletic endeavors, including netball, soccer and track and field. However, despite her achievement in sport, her father pressured her to abandon athletics and focus entirely on her academics.<\/p>\n

In her\u00a0featured GSMP emerging leader profile<\/a>, she explains how she managed to continue her participation in athletics despite her father\u2019s wishes, \u201cI would have to hide when I ran so he wouldn\u2019t find out,\u201d she says. \u201cI would avoid any national competitions or races where there\u2019d be media coverage because I didn\u2019t want to get in trouble. By the time I got to university, I told my dad, \u2018This is my career. This is my destiny.\u2019 So he couldn\u2019t refuse me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Agnes
Baluka Masajja is the second GSMP Emerging Leader to be hosted by professors Laura Burton and Jennie McGarry at the Neag School. (Courtesy of U.S. Dept. of State in cooperation with the University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace, & Society. Photographer: Jaron Johns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patriarchal structures in Ugandan society treat men and women very differently in sports. Athletics are seen as part of the natural domain of men. Females in sport often face societal pressure to focus on domestic duties as well as a threat of sexual harassment from male coaches.<\/p>\n

Baluka Masajja\u2019s story, however, is different. She broke through barriers and currently serves as a role model for other Ugandan female athletes to do the same. As a sports tutor at Busitema University, she holds positions as a coordinator and supervisor for the university\u2019s 16 athletics programs, only five of which are available for women. The limited number of programs is something she is striving to change. In addition, she serves as head of the Education Commission with the Association of Uganda University Sports, through which she organizes national and international tournaments; coaches workshops for sports trainers and tutors; and hosts seminars and conferences across Uganda.\u00a0Baluka Masajja also was a coach for the country\u2019s athletics delegation for the 2015 World University Games in South Korea, and will serve in the same capacity for the 2017 competition in Taipei.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of State\u2019s\u00a0Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs website<\/a>, girls who participate in sports are more likely to have higher rates of school retention and participate in society more. \u201cWhen women and girls can walk on the playing field, they are more likely to step into the classroom, the boardroom, and step out as leaders in society,\u201d the website states.<\/p>\n

For Baluka Masajja, this sentiment rings true. \u201cWhat sports has done for me, I feel it can do for girls throughout Uganda \u2026 Sports becomes a platform for a bigger conversation,\u201d she says. As a GSMP emerging leader, she adds, \u201cI hope to develop skills related to management and business that will help me contribute to economic growth. I also hope to learn about U.S. sports and nonprofit environments so I may implement similar ideas at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

After attending this week\u2019s annual\u00a0espnW: Women + Sports Summit<\/a>\u00a0in California, an event that unites female athletes, leaders in sports, and other industry leaders, Baluka Masajja will arrive at UConn to spend three weeks immersed in various learning and networking experiences with McGarry and Burton as her host mentors, who are both experts in gender issues in sport, specifically with marginalized ethnic and socioeconomic groups.<\/p>\n

The Neag School will welcome Baluka Masajja at the Department of Educational Leadership General Meeting from 9:45 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 6, in\u00a0Gentry<\/a>\u00a0Room 142 on the UConn Storrs campus, and will share more information on this and other GSMP-related activities in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Learn more through this<\/i>\u00a0featured GSMP video<\/i><\/a>\u00a0or visit the U.S. Department of State\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>GSMP website<\/i><\/a>. Or, check out\u00a0<\/i>GSMP on Facebook<\/i><\/a>. Read more about Agnes Baluka Masajja\u00a0<\/i>here<\/i><\/a>, and view more photos of Baluka Masajja\u2019s visit to UConn\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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