KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —The VOLeaders Academy, a first-of-its-kind program, is a dynamic partnership between the UT Center for Leadership and Service, the Center for Sport, Peace and Society and the Tennessee Athletics Department.

The program is unlike any in the country, spanning the boundaries of three different areas of campus, from academics to student life and athletics. It partners athletics with two of the most unique and respected programs on campus for the development of the student-athletes.

By using their platform in sport, student-athletes admitted into the VOLeaders Academy learn how to positively impact their team, campus and local and global communities.

Now in its second year, the program aims to inspire student-athletes to find ways to use their passion of sport and their influence to enact positive change that transcends their athletic success. After a year of preparation and the completion of two courses in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, the 2016-17 VOLeaders class, which included Tennessee football juniors Jack Jones and Kyle Phillips, embarked on a 13-day study abroad journey to Vietnam this summer.

“When we go global to these international destinations,” said Dr. Joe Scogin, Senior Associate Athletics Director, Assistant Provost and Director of the Thornton Center, “it gives our student-athletes an opportunity to broaden their horizons and understand what sport can do to address some of these issues that they see in these countries and how it expands their understanding of the impact that they can make within their teams, in the community and around the world.”

While there, the student-athletes worked with children in orphanages, volunteered at various sport skill camps and visited with university students.

“Going over there and working with these kids in sports, you learn that sports can bring anyone together,” Jones said. “We have all of these new freshmen coming in and they might be from all over the country, but football is bringing us together. It’s cool to see how sport brought people together in Vietnam and how it’s working now as we’re getting ready for the season.”

The VOLeaders class also visited the embassy, museums and cultural destinations important to Vietnamese heritage.

“Our main goal was to tell everybody how sport can bring unity to people from all over and how sports can just bring people together,” Phillips said. “Even though we’re American and they’re from Vietnam, the connection from sports still brings us together in some form or fashion.”

“Going there, they don’t have the best facilities, but they still enjoyed what they did have and they were appreciative of that. That’s something I can take up and I can implement to our team. You don’t have to have the best of the best to be successful, you just have to make the most of what you have.”

Additional Quotes

Admiral Schofield

(On the Vietnam trip overall)
“The first day we met some of the athletes and some of the para-Olympic athletes which was amazing. We took part in a basketball camp which was pretty fun, and Jack [Jones] was my partner. He didn’t know anything about basketball, but he did a good job and brought a lot of energy. Everything we learned over the course of the year really showed. Everyone brought a lot of energy and everyone was open to the new environment.”
(On the overall experience of going to Vietnam with the VOLeaders)
“It was a life-changing experience. One of the biggest things for me was just seeing the facilities. We went to the Olympic facility and National Training facility, and just to see the condition that they were in, it couldn’t even touch our T-REC here. It’s amazing to step back and see the perspective of where I was and coming back from there appreciating what we really have here. Not saying that I didn’t appreciate it before, but really appreciating how nice things are. The way we have things set up here at Tennessee is amazing. How they just make use of what they have and make the best of their opportunities over there is pretty amazing.”

Kyle Phillips
(On how he got involved with the VOLeaders program)
“Last year around this time I was nominated by our coaches and we had to go through an interview process with the people who work in the Thornton Center, and we were hand-selected by those guys. It was a whole year worth of learning about sport and how our platform in sport can help influence others in a positive way and in a negative way. It’s been a great program.”

(On the biggest culture shock)
“I’d probably say the food. The food is very different. It’s probably more fresh and healthy actually, but I like to stick to American food.”

Jack Jones
(On his trip to Vietnam)
“I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Vietnam is a very beautiful country. I couldn’t have been more excited to tour around their country and visit their people. It was really cool.”

(On what his days were like)
“We would usually wake up pretty early. We did different things. We did sports camps for kids. We visited a couple of orphanages. That’s what we would do during the mornings. After that, we visited places like the embassy and a couple of museums. It was cool to be able to work with these kids and then go somewhere like the War Museum. The kids and the people of Vietnam were so accepting of us after being in a major war with them. It was cool to see how kind the people of Vietnam were.”

-UT Athletics