YMCA Names SC To Recruit Future YMCA Professionals
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., April 6, 2004 -- In an historic agreement to be signed Wednesday, April 7, 2004, the YMCA of the USA will designate Springfield College as a premier institution of higher education for YMCA leaders, and Springfield College will agree to annually recruit 30 to 40 students who are interested in YMCA careers from around the country, as well as to expand a range of educational programs for current and future YMCA staff.Springfield College President Richard B. Flynn and YMCA of the USA Chief Executive Officer Kenneth L. Gladish will sign the agreement at 4 p.m. in the Townhouses Conference Room before an audience of more than 100 YMCA executives from around the country attending training events at Springfield College. At 1:30 p.m., more than 50 Springfield College and YMCA representatives at the college’s satellite campuses in San Diego, Calif; Tampa, Fla.; and Wilmington, Del. will witness a ceremonial signing at the college’s George I. Alden Videoconferencing Center in Wilbraham Hall.
Under the agreement, both institutions will collaboratively develop new scholarship resources to support education of future YMCA professionals. The college will focus its current scholarships that are endowed for YMCA education toward recruiting students from YMCA youth leadership programs including the YMCA Leaders Clubs and the Black Achiever and Minority Achiever programs.
The college plans to expand its range of academic and co-curricular programs that support YMCA career preparation. Springfield College YMCA career track students currently major in human services, youth development, sport and recreation management, or management and economics. They also participate in a range of leadership development activities through the college’s YMCA Club.
The college also agreed to continue to offer degree programs for middle and senior level YMCA professionals and volunteers. The Springfield College School of Human Services offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs on weekends for YMCA and other human services professionals in Springfield and at nine satellite campuses around the country. The college also offers academic credit for YMCA training courses that meet its academic standards.
In addition, Springfield College will continue to provide curricula for educational events for YMCA professionals, and will provide institutional support for student and faculty research that impacts the work of the YMCA and the college.
Today’s agreement expands more than a century of collaboration between Springfield College and the YMCA of the USA. The College was founded in 1885 as the School for Christian Workers to educate YMCA leaders. Shortly later, it was renamed The YMCA Training School.
Springfield College has served, since its beginning, in partnership with the YMCA to develop and disseminate innovations in sports, fitness, camping, group work strategies, and other areas. Both institutions have grown in the Humanics Philosophy, which emphasizes balanced development of the spiritual, mental and physical aspects of each person. The college’s first physical education director, Luther Halsey Gulick, who is widely recognized as the father of physical education and recreation, created the spirit-mind-body triangle symbol that represents both institutions. The college has prepared thousands of YMCA leaders in all 50 states and many nations.
The YMCA is the national resource office for the nation’s 2,493 YMCAs, collectively the nation’s largest not-for-profit community service organization, serving 18.3 million people of all faiths, races, and incomes, including nine million children. YMCAs offer a broad range of programs including youth leadership and volunteerism, and together are the nation’s largest providers of child care.
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