Sharing lecture notes, brainstorming new ideas, and collaborating on projects with Olympic athletes and national team members is something very few graduate students experience. Unless, of course, you study at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
The Ontario-based business school is the exclusive partner of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) in business education and is a founding partner of Game plan, comprehensive wellness program for Canadian athletes. Since 2016, Smith has supported Team Canada athletes who are still active or retired to help them develop their expertise and business acumen in preparation for the next phase of their professional journey. Jessie Niles, Christine Robinson and Claire Carver Dias are just three examples of athletes who, with Smith’s help, have adapted the leadership skills they had in sports to the workplace.
After retiring from the national volleyball team, Jessie Niles began thinking about the dreams and goals she now wanted to pursue. His ambitions led him to Smith’s master’s program in management analysis, where his experience as an athlete in a collective setting on the volleyball court allowed him to shine as the program offers a learning structure based on team work.
Niles’ classmate, Patrick Linehan mentioned that she is “both a leader and a true team player”, demonstrating that he particularly appreciated her willingness to step up and take on tasks. logistics. such as scheduling group meetings. Linehan remembers how Niles fostered a harmonious atmosphere during times when the team faced tight deadlines – a responsibility not unlike times when she sought to help her teammates stay calm when the opponent was leading at the end of the game.
Gbenga Ilori, another classmate, echoed Linehan’s portrait, adding that Niles displayed particularly strong leadership qualities in cultivating a respectful atmosphere among a group of people from different backgrounds.
“Given the cultural diversity among the students (there were four different nationalities in the group of seven people) and the level of intensity of the program, the possibilities for disagreements were numerous… The sensitivity of Jessie aa helped maintain strong group cohesion throughout the program,” said Ilori.
This is a skill that Niles has probably developed and refined in his interactions with his peers all over the world during his sporting activities. As she declared upon her retirement, “sport is a common language that all countries share and which has the power to change the world. Being part of Team Canada certainly changed my world and opened the door to the global community. »
What Linehan and Ilori experienced in class with Niles is not much different from what others have experienced in other settings at Smith. Christine Robinson, who was a member of the Canadian water polo team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, also made an impression on her classmates in Smith’s full-time MBA program.
“As a former Olympic athlete, Christine brought a unique perspective to the classroom and truly embodied the qualities of effort and hard work,” says classmate Sherry Khuu. It was a privilege to have been able to learn from and work with her. »
It should be noted that these feelings are mutual. Team Canada athletes also have great things to say about their classmates and their time at Smith. Just ask Claire Carver Dias, who has reached the highest levels of sport, winning a bronze medal in artistic swimming at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and completing the Executive MBA program at the Americas – a dual degree program in partnership with the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.
“The highlight of the whole experience was learning from the practical business experience my classmates had. In the executive MBA program, people usually have 10 years of management experience in a wide range of sectors. The theory we learn comes to life when each of us talks about how we experienced it all, for example, in the construction world, or in a bank, or in my case, what I had learned as a consultant and in the world of sport, says Dias, who currently holds a seat on the board of directors of Commonwealth Sport Canada. We all contributed with different life, cultural and business experiences, which created a truly enriching dynamic. I think it was the ideal recipe for learning. »
