Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: University of Pennsylvania

Title of entry: Obstacle Course, by Trey Popp

About this entry: The Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy aims to turn varsity athletes into lifelong masters of team dynamics. Among the obstacles: snowplow parenting, youth sports, self-reinforcing gender stereotypes, and the culture of leader-worship itself. Oh, and possibly a rattlesnake or a freak mudslide.
For this story, the author joined 20 undergraduate student-athletes for a two-day wilderness leadership-training exercise orchestrated by a 22-year veteran of US Air Force Special Operations. The program is driven by a nationally renowned lacrosse coach who has grown increasingly concerned that “the kids coming into our program have less in the way of leadership skills. And it seems to keep going down every year.” But the initiative also aims to foster capabilities that can translate from the playing field to the executive suite.
How, exactly, are these skills taught? The author provides a worm’s-eye view of the process—getting soaked with rain and squeezing through claustrophobic quartzite labyrinths while gleaning insights from a generation of students that’s often portrayed in overly simplistic terms.
The story also probes a notable shift in the way leadership is defined and taught. The Penn Athletics Wharton program studiously avoids the familiar rhetoric of the Transformational Leader—that iconic figure who bends the will of everyone around them in feats of charismatic inspiration. Instead it emphasizes concepts like responsibility, accountability, self-awareness, community, and trust.
A month after their adventure in the woods, the student-athletes find themselves charged with guiding a younger cohort toward those goals.