Kendall Sanders Participates In 2021 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Training
Centenary senior All-American gymnast Kendall Sanders participated in the 2021 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Training (SALT), which was held virtually last month.
Indianapolis, Ind. - Centenary senior All-American gymnast Kendall Sanders participated in the 2021 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Training (SALT), which was held virtually last month.
Sanders (Spring Branch, Texas) was one of 200 student-athletes from across the country selected to participate in the unique event which featured two days of developmental programming. The virtual event equipped participating student-athletes with vital personal development skills that will serve them on and off the field of competition.
The theme of the two-day experience was "What's Your Leadership DNA?" Attendees gained an understanding of the importance of leading themselves before leading others and how to live out personal values on a daily basis. Through their attendance, they are better equipped to recognize emotions and articulate the impact they have on their thoughts, behaviors, and actions.
The majority of the workshop took place in small group "color teams" of around 20 student-athletes. These teams allowed participants to form meaningful connections with each other and engage in a guided leadership-centric curriculum. Each color team was led by a college athletics administrator, who facilitated a wide variety of sessions to ultimately help participants explore their leadership identity and the qualities that make their leadership DNA unique.
"Being selected for the Student Athlete Leadership team was such an honor," said Sanders. I was able to meet and interact with over 200 student-athletes from different divisions, schools, and sports!"
"SALT was a two-day event that involved small group activities and guest speakers such as the amazing Jonathan Sprinkles! My small group was the Navy Squad where group leaders and other athletes worked to help find our leadership DNA's. We also went through the process of finding our true core values that we stand for not only as a leader but as a person."
"My core values were family, authenticity, and commitment. These three values encompasses how I want to live my life and how I want to lead. The family stands for loving one another and developing relationships with others. The authenticity stands for always being true to myself and not sacrificing who I am. This allows for trust and respect from others. My last core value was commitment. Commitment to me included so many other values like being passionate, determined, motivated and be 110% all in. By the end of the conference we were able to write a leadership philosophy describing our leadership DNA and what we learned over the course of two days."
"My leadership philosophy says that in order to lead to success, I want to be the one who someone can come to, an ear to listen, I want to have connections with everyone and show that I hear them, I understand them, I will help them. We are in it together. I want to be an example and put my words to actions while having my team hold me accountable. What I expect from them they should expect from me. Not everyone will like the way I lead, not everyone is like me, However, I will stay determined to find what drives them in order to help them reach their goals. It takes an army, everyone has a purpose, I will love, be real and be 110% ALL IN!! I was so blessed to receive this opportunity and I cannot wait to get my senior year started and bring the skills I learned in SALT 21!!!"
Sanders was named a First-Team All-American by USA Gymnastics on both the floor and in the all-around this past season. She was also named an All-American by the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association as she earned her honors on beam (9.681), floor (9.700), and all-around (38.519). She earned all-conference honors following an impressive performance at the annual MIC Championships on March 19 as she placed fourth in the all-around with a score of 38.650 to earn all-around second team honors and also earned second-team recognition on floor with a 9.700.
She earned a new career-high 9.825 on floor at the USAG Championships on April 10 after she competed in the all-around in all eight of the Ladies' meets during the season. She had a phenomenal meet on March 12 versus TWU, the Ladies' final home meet of the season, as she earned new career-high scores on both bars (9.675) and vault (9.800). Sh nearly matched her career-high score of 9.725 on beam in that same meet as she recorded an impressive 9.700 en route to a career-high score in the all-around (38.825). She was named a MIC Scholar-Athlete with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
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