Not every coach carries a whistle. Kathleen O’Brien, the University’s assistant athletic director for academic services, carries a guiding light. She runs the ACHIEVE Center, a one-stop shop designed to assist student athletes with their development away from the court of play.
“Our job is very similar to coaching, only we are academic coaches,” she says. “Their coaches can’t go out and play the game for them, and we can’t take the test for them. It really does take a village to support students through this journey that they’re on for four or five years.”
The ACHIEVE Center provides a comprehensive support program for Drexel’s Division I student-athletes that includes academic development, leadership development, as well as personal, career and civic engagement opportunities. O’Brien oversees a full-time staff of two, plus four graduate students, who work with Drexel’s 460 student-athletes.
“Depending on the needs of the student-athlete, we could have one that goes through our program for four or five years and never needs someone in the ACHIEVE Center, or we could have somebody, if they have a learning disability or they’re international or they need help with time-management, who might see us on a weekly basis,” she says.
The program has been a resounding success. In fall 2015, student-athletes posted a cumulative GPA of 3.25, and the Athletics Department’s Graduation Success Rate — a four-year average designed to measure the proportion of student- athletes who earn a college degree who are on athletic aid — was 91 percent for the 2008–09 freshman cohort, 5 percent above the national average.
When working with student-athletes on issues ranging from time management to frustrations with their athletic careers, O’Brien relies on her background — an undergrad degree in psychology from Penn State University and a master’s in sports psychology from Temple University.
“It’s a growth process,” says O’Brien, who still advises men’s and women’s basketball players. “We’re here to support them along the way, but they’ve got to figure it out themselves. Some get it relatively quickly, but for some students it takes longer.”
Drexel alumnus Phil Goss ’05 fell into the latter category. A basketball player from Washington, D.C., he came to Drexel for one reason — to play basketball.
“He was one of those students who needed a lot of academic support and structure,” O’Brien says. “We battled it out for the first two years he was here. He lives and breathes basketball, and everything else was secondary.”
But during his junior year, O’Brien managed to break through, and Goss graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He’s been a professional basketball player in Europe ever since, and credits O’Brien for much of his maturation.
“Kathy played an enormous role in my success as a student- athlete,” says Goss, who’s playing this season in Venice, Italy. “She has always supported me on and o the court. My freshman year I struggled in the classroom. Kathy worked with me daily to improve my study habits, and she had an open ear to all of my personal problems, as well. I always knew I could talk to her. She is very patient and genuinely cares about each and every student she works with. If she wasn’t patient with me, I don’t think I would have made it.”
O’Brien is close friends with Goss today, and says it’s the relationships she’s forged that makes the job so worthwhile.
“I’ve been invited to their weddings, gotten to meet their babies,” she says of her former players. “Seeing a student graduate and seeing them take a step forward, it’s really rewarding.“