Upcoming Event: Women's Tennis versus ITA Regional Championship on October 16, 2025
Women's Tennis
vs ITA Regional Championship
Record Number for L.E.A.D. Retreat
9/3/2019 6:00:00 AM | Athletics
DURHAM, N.C.-- A record number of Duke student-athletes participated in the Duke Athletics Leadership Enrichment and Development (L.E.A.D.) Retreat at Quaker Lake Camp in Climax, N.C. over Labor Day weekend. This event was facilitated by the Duke Athletics Leadership Program, and attended by student-athletes selected by their coaches. Forty-three sophomores, thirty-four juniors, and twenty-two seniors attended with representatives from the following Men's and Women's teams: Fencing, Lacrosse, Swimming and Diving, Tennis, and Track and Field teams as well as Men's Baseball, Women's Rowing, Women's Softball, and Men's Wrestling.
Josh Finesilver, a junior on the Wrestling team, reflected on his L.E.A.D. experience, “L.E.A.D. to me was a time to reflect on our team and how we can become better leaders to foster a healthy team environment. We learned a lot about each other and were able to speak our minds about what we each thought could improve ourselves and the team culture.”
The keynote speaker for the weekend was Duke Alumnus and former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Sue Gordon '80. She shared with the student-athletes how as people the three keys elements to develop your leadership skills are through Self, Team, and Community. Through personal example, Sue created a vision of how through self-awareness you are able to put the good of the team first and make sound choices that impact the community in a positive way.
Ema Kuczura, a junior on the Rowing Team, reflected on what Sue's message meant to her. “Sue Gordon's message was very empowering for me because it demonstrated the power of being honest with oneself about personal identity and realistic consequences. I believe that leadership is often categorized as an external quality, when in actuality, as Sue described, it is a characteristic that comes from internal truth: knowing who you are and what's important to you in the end.”
The L.E.A.D. program focuses on helping leadership groups within each team explore and understand their leadership potential through various group and individual activities. Working in groups comprised of members from their class, these young men and women had the opportunity to problem-solve, communicate, discuss, and reflect on individual roles as sophomores, juniors, and seniors within various team cultures. In addition, students reflected on their team culture and the values they display as a team. Activities included journaling, behavioral and personality assessments through DiSC Assessment and PDP Profile reports. Additionally discussions about collaboration and team culture enable the student-athletes to share and renew team goals and relationships.
Senior, Brittany Aveni, from the Women's Track & Field Team, had this to say about L.E.A.D. and the impact it has had on her the past three years. “L.E.A.D. provides a unique and extremely beneficial opportunity for teams to motivate underclassmen to take on more leadership roles as well as providing seniors feedback with how they can more effectively communicate and lead their teams towards their goals. Each year after attending L.E.A.D. I have observed huge success in elevating our team culture, which in turn has also improved our performance.”
L.E.A.D. is made possible in part by a generous gift from the Heidrick Family.
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