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 second blog update about his experiences. 

Day 4:

            Today was a slightly different day than what we had previously experienced. In the morning we worked with a group called PVBLIC. PVBLIC works to connect social media campaigns to viewers and consumers to spread and promote messages of change. For example, the video and commercial campaign that went viral a few years ago which utilized celebrities saying "It's on us to stop sexual assault" targeting the issues faced by college campuses was executed in collaboration with PVBLIC, the White House, and a video production team.  Their message to us was about how we can us social media in a positive way to effectively get our messaging across to an audience.

After being introduced to the concepts and company, we were divided into groups to create our own "It's on us" themed video campaign to stop sexual assault on college campuses. After going through the creative stages and writing the scripts we drove to a local studio to professionally shoot our campaign videos. We shot three, two-minute videos at the studio that are still going through the final editing process. Once the final editing is done PVBLIC will share the videos publically as a continuation of their successful "It's on us" campaign. Media and the creative process that goes along with it is something I am very interested in so it was really an enjoyable and educational experience to create a professional quality video campaign in the studio all in the span of a few hours.

            Day 5:

            Today was by far the most fun day we have had so far. This was because we started off in the morning by playing wheelchair basketball. A group called the Strong Dogs came in from Tampa and introduced us to the sport they love. The group included both men and women of all ages, including a 20-year-old who was the youngest player ever to make the United States national team as an alternate. It's safe to say that the professionals were much better than the rest of us, but today was about so much more than winning and losing. Other than it being one of the most fun sports I've ever played, wheelchair basketball taught a lot of lessons that I'll honestly never forget. Often times people with disabilities are set to the side or "otherized", especially in athletics. When you play a game like wheelchair basketball however, everyone is suddenly on the same level and can have fun and be competitive just like any other game. People's disabilities disappear during the game, and rather than being set aside everyone is brought in and included equally. It's hard to put everything into words, and I could go on about today's experience forever, but it was just really inspiring to see how a sport like wheelchair basketball can include people in athletics who have serious physical disabilities that would usually create a barrier for them.

            In the afternoon we were back with some familiar faces from the Youth Sport Trust. This time they were teaching how to maintain child safety and wellbeing when working with groups of kids through the lens of the "fixed" and "growth" mindset. I really enjoyed this session to because the ideas of a fixed versus growth mindset come from a book written by Carol Dweck that I had just recently read and really enjoyed. This session really expanded on the ideas I had gained from reading the book on how I can continue to strive for a growth rather than a fixed mindset.

            We ended the day with something fun as well. NBA MVP and soon to be back-to-back NBA champion Steph Curry (editor's note: don't jinx 'em Carson) has a foundation called Nothing But Nets that works to provide mosquito nets to those in need in order to combat malaria. He is currently hosting a social media campaign titled "Call your shot" where he asks people to post videos of themselves calling their shots on the basketball court and challenging others to do the same in order to raise awareness about his campaign. Curry sent our group a package of shirts from his campaign so we could create and shoot a video for him. We did the filming of that this afternoon, incorporating both the Strong Dogs wheelchair basketball group as well as all of the different countries all of us participants are from. The video is being edited and finalized in the next few days and once it is published Steph Curry and/or his campaign are hoping to share it on Twitter and other forms of social media.

            Day 6:

            Today was another special day. We started off the morning being addressed by Mr. Wilfried Lemke. Mr. Lemke is the Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace. Essentially he is in charge of the entire sport for development and peace initiative run by the United Nations. Having him speak and interact with us was truly an honor. Fortunately for us Mr. Lemke will be spending the next two days with us as well and I am looking forward to learning from all the time we will have together.

            Mr. Lemke brought a lot of inspiring words to his initial presentation. He brought up the point that there are 13 countries represented at this summit and by now we are all very good friends. He asked us if we thought there would be any conflict between us this week that we wouldn't be able to settle with conversation. We all responded "no". He then asked why that couldn't be the same with our leaders throughout the world today. That really resonated with me because everyone I have met here has been so awesome and friendly and accepting. Yet there are still over 60 violent conflicts going on throughout the world today. It just further showed that if we get to know one another we would learn that we really aren't all that different. Mr. Lemke brought it back to sport by saying that "Sport doesn't have the power to stop tanks, but it has the power to bring people together". And in my opinion bringing people together is the only way to solve many of the world's crises.

            Throughout our session with Mr. Lemke we had a lot of discussion about topics important to us. On of my new friends from the camp named Kike brought up an issue very important to her. She just graduated from Georgetown where she played basketball. She brought up the point that FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, has disallowed female players from wearing a hijab on their head even if it is a part of their religion. With people in the room representing all different types of religions around the world we all agreed that there was no true basis for this ruling. Mr. Lemke directed Kike to head up the writing of a declaration for us to sign calling for the hijab to be allowed during competition and he said that he himself along with the rest of the United Nations would sign it as well and forward it to FIBA. This is just an example of some actual things we are doing at the summit that will have effects worldwide.

            In the afternoon we then got to meet with a group of 16 Olympians and Paralympians representing a variety of different sports and years. We heard their stories and the lessons they have learned throughout all their experiences. We then went out with them to dinner where we were able to see all their medals and even a past Olympic torch. It was very interesting hearing their stories, such as how the 1980 Olympians dealt with the boycotting of the Moscow games they had been training 4 years for. The Olympics is by far my favorite sporting event and a group I could see myself working with one day. To be around the Olympians and hear their stories from the games was an amazing experience.