BRADENTON, FLA. - Carson-Newman football placekicker Carson Wise has been selected to attend the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace's (UNOSP) International Sport and Social Impact Summit from June 6-18 in Bradenton, Fla. Below is the first blog update about his experiences. 

Day 1:

            Today was our first full day in Bradenton, FL at the IMG Academy. Throughout the day we worked with a group called the Youth Sport Trust who are some of our main facilitators of the camp. The Youth Sport Trust is an organization that uses sport and physical education as a means for development for people living in adversity in over 60 countries around the world. They took us through various leadership games and exercises with frequent stops for reflection so we could identify what leadership and teamwork traits where important for each game. Although all the games were very simple in their goals, we found that through each of the tasks assigned we identified a new trait that was important to have as a leader and as a team member. I think this was very important for the first day because it is preparing us for the leadership challenges and information that we will be receiving throughout the next two weeks.

            My favorite part of today however was that these leadership exercises also acted as icebreakers for us to begin getting to know one another. A few of us had met last night but this was the first time we were all able to interact as a single group. Our main facilitators and staff from the UNOSDP and Youth Sport Trust come from Switzerland, the UK, Barbados, and other countries. In terms of participants there are about 35 of us who represent 13 different countries. Some of these countries include Canada, St. Lucia, Guatemala, Columbia, South Africa, Botswana, India, Ukraine, and many more. We have a very diverse group of people and it has been an incredible experience beginning to learn the stories and experiences of everyone in the group. In many cases today was the first time I have ever talked directly to people currently living in a lot of the countries represented. Before today I didn't know anyone living in Botswana or Columbia, but now we are all living together and sharing stories and information. For example, we have all heard of the apartheid in South Africa and what went on with Nelson Mandela. But today I was able to listen to a South African talk about how that history still affects South Africa today. He discussed the problems that they are still going through with discrimination of other African immigrants, and I learned more than I ever could have through research alone. Stories like these have left me feeling inspired to hear everyone's story here and to broaden my perspective of the world. If I have learned one thing already from spending time with everyone here it is that the perspective that most of us are shown through the media and society of the rest of the world is anything but an accurate description. Connecting with others who live all over our planet has been a truly inspiring experience and I am excited to see where these relationships continue to go.

Day 2:

            Today our presenters were leaders of the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG) from Botswana. The IWG is an international organization that focuses on how sport can be used as a development tool in conjunction with gender equality and making sure that women are able to engage in the same participation and opportunities as men are. We all agree that sport can be a tool for development, but in many cases women aren't able to participate in sport at the same capacity as men. Whether is be gender norms from cultural traditions or simply the logistical dilemma of someone needing to look over the house and family, women often do not have the same opportunities as men do to engage in sports related activities. This topic opened the door for much discussion on what the real issues holding women back are today, and it was interesting to see how the issues were perceived different from people of different countries and cultures.

            After our sessions with the IWG were over it was only fitting to immediately go down to the soccer fields for pickup soccer. The sun was hot and the humidity was high but that didn't stop us from playing a full-sided game for about an hour and a half. Later in the evening we stumbled across the Ping-Pong tables on the IMG campus. Ironically I had just learned earlier that day that one of my new friends Butale from Botswana was a five-time national table tennis champion in her home country. A small group of us played Ping-Pong for about another hour and a half at that point. It is safe to say that Butale was the best of us there, however it was all fun and friendly competition and we had a great time playing doubles matches and making up our own new games to try.

Day 3:

             Today we worked with two separate organizations. We first met with a group called Edgework Consulting. Two of the Edgework Consulting representatives who have coached women's soccer both at the Division I and national team level came to speak to us on how they have converted from coaching for the sole purpose of skill development to coaching for the purpose of player and life skills development. As many of the participants of the summit come from communities suffering from great hardships, the focus of Edgework's presentation and activities were how to deal with trauma from a coach's perspective. We learned a lot of valuable skills on how to use sport as a means to connect with kids who may have otherwise been shut down or disconnected because of trauma in their lives. We were then able to complete mock activities and play games to put these newly learned skills to the test.

            In the afternoon we were able to hear from Ingrid Vanderveldt, an inspiring women who is leading a campaign called "Empowering a Billion Women by 2020". Ingrid went from living in her car broke to running multimillion dollar companies through the power of hard work and determination. She then used this success to work towards her passion of empowering women all over the globe. She talked to us about how to make meaningful relationships and find mentors who can help us reach our big ideas. Because the entire summit is filled with people who want to change the world for the better, Ingrid encouraged us to reach for our biggest ideas and goals, and find people who have just as big and crazy ideas to be our mentors. I think as a group we found Ingrid to be very inspiring because she set herself the lofty goal to empower one billion people by 2020 and is well on her way to reach it by not taking no for an answer.