This entry is written by Patrick Jenkins, a track and field student-athlete at Western Kentucky. Jenkins is a member of the Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

In my experience, a tremendous amount of time at Division I National SAAC meetings is focused on the negative aspects of college sports: early recruitment, commercialism, lack of diversity and less than sparkling academic performance. However, at this year's recent NCAA Convention, we were able to put these topics aside and hear how collegiate athletics helped shape an individual. It was none other than CNN's Soledad O'Brien, who at one time was a lacrosse and rugby student-athlete at Harvard University.

Her message covered topics that most student-athletes learn at some point in their scholastic and/or athletic career, which made it easily relatable to life in general. She first explained that hard work was and is the main reason for success on the field, as well as in life. "Natural talent is certainly part of the equation," she explained. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, hard work is a better correlation to success. Too many times I have seen this scenario played out: talented individuals succeed early in their career and, later after putting in no work, they get passed up by others who have worked hard during the offseason.

She conveyed that success is significant, but the process is what is most essential. It is through the process that we learn lessons applicable to other areas of life: perseverance, communication, and diversity. Diversity, in my opinion, is the most visible. As a track and field student-athlete, it is easy to see how diversity leads to success. In order to succeed, a group of a variety of individuals must come together and perform in many different events. You do not see any serious program succeeding when putting distance runners in throws, jumps, or sprints.

This fit very well into our meetings. The DI National SAAC had two meetings focusing on diversity and it looks to be something that the NCAA will look to the SAAC for help in the future.

O'Brien argued that knowing a diverse group of individuals not only promotes success, but also introduces you to a larger number of people that provide wisdom and experience. She went on to explain her mentors have come from all directions: colleagues, family members, coaches, and people she has interviewed. By expanding our mentors beyond our coaches and fellow student-athletes, it allows us to reach out to more people and gather more experience/advice. Ultimately, O'Brien suggests we will be better equipped to handle whatever is thrown at us.

As O'Brien stressed, the life lessons learned from athletics will benefit us even after our athletic careers are over. Once she finished, I found it insightful to look back on my three years as a student-athlete. It was amazing to see how many lessons I had learned and how those could help me once I had a degree.

My sophomore year stood out. I was coming off a freshman year that exceeded my and my coaches' expectations and was ready to build on that. However, during the summer I developed a stress fracture which ended my cross country season before it began. I rehabbed and got in shape for track. Shortly, after indoor track was complete, I developed another stress fracture which ended my outdoor track season. I spent basically my entire sophomore year recovering from stress fractures and had nothing to show for it. With patience and hard work during the summer I was able to get back into shape and perform better than I ever had.

Through that year long experience, I learned the meaning of hard work and perseverance and I will be able to carry that wherever I go--be it in the classroom, on the track or course, or later as I get into the professional world.

O'Brien's speech made me realize how lucky I was to have these experiences to learn from before getting into the real world. Through these, I have been able to develop skills I will use in the future and that is something I will never take for granted.