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University of Wyoming

Members of the Cowboy football team congratulate Henrietta Shingleton on winning the “Promoting First-Year Student Athlete Success Excellence in
Instruction Award” from the Athletic Academic Advisors Association (N4A).

It recognizes the mentoring program Shingleton established to help first-year
student athletes launch successful academic careers. Shown with Henrietta
are (seated) Ivan Harrison, communications, Kansas City, Kansas; (standing,
left to right) Nick Brousseau, undeclared, Chippewa Falls, Wis.; and Erik
Kottom, secondary education, Eden Prairie, Minn. Harrison was Shingleton's
teaching assistant during the fall 2005 class that served as the core of the
award-winning program.

An innovative approach to acclimating freshman athletes to college life – and building the potential for academic success – has earned national recognition for College of Education alumna Henrietta Shingleton.

Fellow members of the Athletic Academic Advisors Association (N4A) designated Shingleton (BS ’91, Business Education) as 2006 recipient of the organization’s   “Promoting First-Year Student Athlete Success Excellence in Instruction Award” at its annual conference in Pittsburgh.

UW’s program is notable, both for the impact it has on individual students and its emphasis on cross-campus collaboration in providing that support.

Shingleton, mentor/academic coordinator/learning specialist, originally designed the award-winning course as a pilot for the University Studies Program. It was coordinated through the UW Athletics Department Office of Academic Support and eventually hosted by the UW Department of Communication and Journalism. This year, it operates as weekly workshop, meeting on Sunday nights. In addition to learning from guest speakers on topics related to acclimating to the college academic environment, student participants work closely with Shingleton on goals related to their individual learning needs.

At the program’s foundation is a conviction that each student can succeed off the playing field as well as on.

“I’ve always had the philosophy that any athlete who is recruited at the Division I level is capable of being a successful college student,” Shingleton says. “They’re going to succeed, and they can graduate.”  

Together, Henrietta and her students work on finding ways to build on the individual’s strengths while working on the challenges each might face in the classroom.

Students enrolled in the program do not necessarily have identifiable learning disabilities. Instead, their challenges may lie in the adjustments one must make when moving from a high school learning environment to the culture and structure found in a university setting.

“It can be one very simple thing that they just haven’t figured out yet how to master,” Shingleton says.

Critical to the program’s achievement is Shingleton’s ability to engage colleagues across campus who share a concern for student success and retention. One of those colleagues is Liz Simpson, assistant professor of special education.

“What Henrietta is doing is very unique,” Simpson says. “To pool the university resources that are all here for a similar purpose and to pull together that strength for our students is a wonderful effort.”

Liz brings understanding and experiences helping students successfully transition to the higher education learning environment to the program’s support team. For some, that step is a difficult one.

“The environment can be disabling,” Simpson says. “The teaching style can be disabling for some students. Kids are learning a bit differently than they used to learn. Sometimes, we’re behind the ball on that.”

As a support team member, Simpson is witnessing firsthand both the impact on the student athletes in the freshman program and the potential of cross-campus collaboration for student success.

“She (Henrietta) had pulled together resources from across campus that had strengths in the area of transition for students who may find that to be a difficult leap,” Simpson notes.

Several of Shingleton’s peers have inquired about the UW program since the award was announced this summer. Simpson says institutions also can draw from Wyoming’s example.

“There is obviously a need that Henrietta has plugged into,” Simpson says. At the institutional level, “why would we not utilize the expertise Henrietta has regarding freshmen who have some very unique issues coming in?”

About Henrietta Shingleton

Henrietta earned the first of two bachelor’s degrees, in business education, after returned to school as an adult student. She earned a second bachelor’s degree, in physical education/sports marketing, in 1992. Henrietta was an active student, serving for two years as president of both the Student Wyoming Education Association and the UW chapter of Phi Beta Lambda international business education organization. Shingleton was named outstanding business education senior and a life member of The Golden Key Honor Society.

The self-described “late bloomer,” who comes from a family of coaches, has completed a curriculum base of coaching theory courses for five different sports. She also participated in the “NFL-NFF Coaching Academy” at the Denver Broncos camp in 2001.

Shingleton has taken additional coursework in counseling, special education, and international issues in education, to better prepare her for the evolving needs of an increasingly diverse student body.