BOSTON – Student-athletes and administrators from across the Colonial Athletic Association joined together on November 6-7 for the 2016 CAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Leadership Summit, hosted by Northeastern.
 
One male and one female student-athlete leader from each member institution participated, along with 10 campus SAAC advisors, CAA national SAAC representative Derek Trott (William & Mary), CAA commissioner Joe D'Antonio, CAA deputy commissioner Jennifer Condaras, and CAA director for compliance & student-athlete services Donna Jones.
 
Rachel Rosenthal (women's rowing) and Pat Cunningham (cross county/track & field) served as Northeastern's student-athlete leaders this year. Director of athletics and recreation Peter Roby, executive senior associate athletic director Regina Sullivan, and assistant compliance director and SAAC advisor Justin Bell were also in attendance.
 
SAAC chapters vary throughout the country in their specific missions, but Northeastern's chapter places special emphasis on community service, as well as providing student-athletes with a platform for their voices to be heard.
 
The student-athletes discussed the eye-opening nature of the summit, as well as a few of the lessons they took away.
 
"It's a great experience to get insight on other athletic programs in the CAA," Cunningham said. "It put into perspective not only how good our coaches and respective programs are, but also our athletic department as a whole."
 
Frank McPhee, a former Northeastern student-athlete and current account executive for Boston Globe Media Partners, addressed the participants, speaking about his experience as a student-athlete and life after college athletics.
 
"[McPhee] told us about his whole journey, about how he got to where he is," said Rosenthal, a member of SAAC's executive board. "He also talked about how sport has greatly affected him because it gave him the tools to be successful, which was cool for everybody to hear. We put so much time into this now, so it was good to know a good outcome comes out of it."
 
Cunningham echoed Rosenthal's sentiments about the impact of McPhee's presentation.
 
"You don't realize how big your voice is as an athlete and how much influence you actually have, so that's something I kind of took away from the leadership meeting with Frank," he said. "I just realized that, as an athlete, you carry so much influence, so why not make a positive impact with that?"
 
Another presentation was led by Ben Graves, the founder and CEO of Stacked Sports, and Alex Sutton, chief technology officer at Stacked Sports, a company that created an app that helps student-athletes build a stronger social media brand. On the final day of the summit, participants held a discussion on important issues they face. Rosenthal mentioned the benefits of brainstorming with the members from other schools.
 
"It was really great to get ideas for things for SAAC to do," she said. "We're always trying to bring the athletes together, and that's a hard thing to do because we already put so much time into athletics, so that part was cool."
 
Sullivan, who also serves as senior woman administrator for Northeastern Athletics, spoke to the success of the summit and the potential of each of the participants.
 
"Northeastern is thrilled to have had the opportunity to host the CAA SAAC Summit," she said. "The dedication, thoughtfulness and advocacy demonstrated by these student-athletes on behalf of their peers makes an impact at the institutional and conference levels. It is inspiring to see these student leaders of today develop into our future leaders of tomorrow."