News Archive

Students from St George's College are helping athletes with intellectual disabilities - and learning some lessons themselves

Medical student Kirsten Bennett, who has signed up for a second year of mentoring with the Athletes Leadership Program, said she had learned from the young woman she mentored that life did not need to be as complicated as we make it.

"The athletes have really taught us lessons about life," said Kirsten, who, along with the other St George's residents, has volunteered to be involved again this year, even though some of them have graduated.

The Special Olympics program complements the Paralympics, where athletes with physical disabilities compete nationally and internationally. Other mentors include Mark Dodd, Rose Devereaux, Anna and Rebecca Civil, Stacie Cunningham, Alexander Watson, Alexander McLeay, and Akram Azimi.

Richard Pengelley, Chaplain at St George's, UW A's Sub Dean Community and a former Olympic water polo player, became involved when Special Olympics WA patron Winthrop Professor Fiona Wood recommended him to run a mentoring program.

Assistant Professor Pengelley had run a successful mentoring program for the West Coast Eagles football club in 2010 with his colleagues Associate Professor Peter Whipp and Winthrop Professor Shelda Debowski. Professor Wood was one of the mentors in this program.

He paired seven St George's students with a group of athletes and set some goals for them to achieve.

Kirsten mentored Michelle, a woman in her mid-30s who plays softball. "I'm not a sporting person myself but I welcomed the opportunity to get to know somebody with a different perspective and different experiences," she said.

"We would meet for coffee and talk about the training goals Richard had set. One of the biggest challenges for the athletes was public speaking. As part of the program, they each had to stand up at a public event and deliver a speech. Michelle lacked the confidence to do that; she even found writing a speech daunting.

"So we worked a lot together on that until she was finally able to get up and speak at a sports luncheon."

The program is designed to train the athletes to be able to take a place on the Special Olympics Board.

Special Olympics is more about learning skills, taking part, getting fit, interacting socially and instilling confidence, rather than competing to be the fastest and the strongest.

There are competitions, and WA athletes take part in nine different sports. The next national Special Olympics meet is in Victoria in 2014 and the international games are in Los Angeles in 2015.

Professor Pengelley, who has now been joined by WA cricketer Luke Towers to train the mentors, last year partnered the mentor/athlete pairs with Eagles footballers. They attended a training session, toured the club and some of them practised their speeches in front of the players.

"We also had a parade at half-time during an Eagles/Dockers Derby for athletes who had taken part in the 2011 Special Olympics in Athens," he said.

The Athletes Leadership Program continues this year with 10 athletes being mentored by current or former St George's students.

Published in UWA News , 19 March 2012