SAN ANTONIO – David Spencer works with some amazing women leaders. Recently, a group comprised of Jessica Raley, Cindy Jorgensen, Letty George, CeCe Given and Gay Miller was looking for an outside-the-box way to give back to UTSA student-athletes that would make a particularly meaningful impact.
Spencer and his wife Jennifer ’93 have made gifts in a number of areas at UTSA, including Athletics, The Spirit of San Antonio Marching Band, engineering, cybersecurity, the Honors College, scholarships for immigrant students and student life. But he hoped his latest contribution could help student-athletes in a different way.
“There’s a growing group in the community that really just cares about and believes that what is good for UTSA is good for San Antonio,” Spencer said. “A few of us were sitting around talking about NIL and we said, ‘What might we be able to do other than write a check?’ My wife and I both have had a super interest in women’s athletics. We had also heard that many of the women athletes at UTSA aren’t from San Antonio. As employers, we noted we have this amazing talent pool that comes into San Antonio that we don’t want to leave. Those two ideas combined into a single thought, ‘Why don’t we get together and dare to try to set up a mentor for each of our women athletes?’”
The common theme throughout Spencer’s contributions to the university has been about improving the student experience for all Roadrunners.
“My wife is a graduate of UTSA and she would drive into UTSA and then leave; it was a commuter school,” Spencer said. “What I’ve wanted to do is make this a destination campus. For my wife and I, it always comes back to – how can we help make it more fun to be a student here? If so, we’re all in.”
This past summer, the program’s founders got together for a lunch to discuss what the program might look like. CeCe Given, a 1986 UTSA graduate who currently mentors UTSA soccer player Rylee Low, has been part of Empowered Connections from the start.
“I went to that initial lunch last July and started working on it from day one,” Given said. “I’m not an athlete but I was always really involved in the campus and I’m super excited for the opportunities that are here now for women athletes. So many of these women come from other areas, so we can connect them with San Antonio. It’s anything we can do to help them while they’re here but, after they graduate, we have resources to help them stay in San Antonio.”
The founders of Empowered Connections contemplated how they might select student-athletes for a mentorship program and how many would comprise the inaugural class.
“Instead of a few women athletes, we thought, ‘Let’s just do all of them,’” said Raley, one of the program’s leaders.
“We didn’t even know that number at first,” Spencer said. “We’re just getting started but the student-athletes are super interested in it. It’s super easy to write a check, but it’s actually hard to be a mentor. These mentors are spending what is probably the most precious commodity for any of us and that’s time.”
The more mentors the program has identified, the more it has been able to expand. It exemplifies the power of connection.
“These ladies got together and said let’s just work our personal networks,” said Jorgensen, MBA ’00. “We had about 20 women who got together and wanted to help. They all looked for people out of their own personal networks who were willing to be mentors.”
The matching of mentors and mentees has been done carefully to ensure that student-athletes get the most out of the relationship.
Olivia Williams is a junior golfer from Worcestershire, England, who is being mentored by Peggy Eighmy, First Lady of UTSA. Their commonalities have forged a special bond.
“I’m majoring in psychology and Peggy has a degree in psychology, so it’s been really interesting to hear her perspective on it,” Williams said. “Her best friend also lives in London and I’m from England. They kind of saw that and matched us together.”
Eighmy and Williams text regularly, have met up for breakfast and both enjoy attending UTSA women’s basketball games. For Williams, whose life has been centered on golf and who aspires to play on the Ladies European Tour, the relationship with Eighmy has given her a glimpse of what life after sports will be like.
“Life after graduation is obviously tricky because this is all I know in life,” Williams said. “She’s shown me a lot of things that can be beneficial for me in the future. It just gives us such an advantage compared to others. It kind of gives an idea of what to expect going forward.”
Given and the other mentors can provide guidance to the student-athletes in a variety of ways.
“I think it takes time to establish trust that we’re really here to help,” Given said. “Once they start seeing that, we can start helping with all sorts of things. My mentee is looking for networking and maybe help getting an internship. Well, I can help with that. I think it’s all about connections.”
The opportunity for student-athletes to interact with their peers from other sports has been an unexpected, yet impactful outcome from the program.
“I don’t know if we really even thought about that, but the first event we had, we heard, ‘These are my best friends, I see them all the time. We practice together and play together. But it’s really nice seeing athletes from other sports,’” Given said. “These group events that we’re doing – at least one per semester – I think it’s bringing community together for all of the athletes.”
The leaders of Empowered Connections believe that the program can set the standard in collegiate athletics and become an important reason why student-athletes choose the Roadrunners.
“How much does this give UTSA an advantage in recruiting student-athletes?” Spencer asked. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we built a culture in San Antonio where we appreciate and connect our women athletes with the community? It’s hard to be a DI student-athlete. If we do nothing else but help them on their journey, that’s a win. It would be frosting on the cake if we were able to help these talented young women connect to their community, stay here, build their careers and make San Antonio a better place.”
And what better way for community leaders to impact UTSA student-athletes than the Empowered Connections program?
“A lot of people think they have to be old and maybe rich to give back,” Spencer said. “Actually, you don’t. These women leaders are proving you can pay it forward. Mentorship is an amazing way to do that. The best part is, you just have to be you. It’s a great way to give back.”