Note: The following appears in the NC State football gameday program.
Although the industry of college football has and will continue to undergo rapid and groundbreaking evolution, P.A.W. Journey is resolute in its belief that holistic development is what Clemson’s football scholar-athletes need to achieve and acquire success and fulfillment now and beyond football. Each young man who becomes a part of this team continues to experience the empowerment they need to grow, lead and win on the field and in every aspect of their lives, no matter what happens with NIL, revenue sharing, the transfer portal or the College Football Playoff.
In the midst of an abundance of change, P.A.W. Journey remains the same…the nation’s model program for player relations and student-athlete development, evidenced by the first-class men and world-class leaders who make up Clemson football.
When the vision for P.A.W. Journey is to produce first-class men and world-class leaders, everything they are provided access to is driven by an intent to empower. In player relations, it can be easy to aim to provide an abundance of opportunities and resources. But, empowerment is not about quantity, but intentionality and impact.
Empowerment is defined as authority or power given to someone or something, and the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights. Thus, P.A.W. Journey does not aim for a transfer of power in the form of a plethora of resources for our scholar-athletes. Instead, we maximize the opportunities and resources we provide by ensuring that each young man can utilize what he is exposed to and educated on to take ownership of their lives and the process it takes to create a present and future quality of life characterized by winning.
This form of empowerment was on display when 20 Tiger football scholar-athletes completed a service abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa in May. Each student served the city’s community by providing physical education to less privileged elementary school kids, and learned about the city’s culture, history and geography.
Tristan Leigh, a P.A.W. Journey ambassador, January’s P.A.T. Man-of-the-Month and winner of the trip’s Work Ethic Award, shared the following.
“You can learn a lot from sitting back and listening. It was fun to see what wisdom everyone brought to the table.”
Leigh’s description of this learning process as being fun is the picture of…