For the Extra Mile Institute

Guest speaker series

Four sessions across fall and spring, one per GSCG principle. The series exists to raise awareness of internal growth while people are pursuing outcomes. It is also how we conduct studies and build a better understanding of what students are struggling with, especially mentally and emotionally. That second job is quieter, and it is the one that shapes what we build next.

What this series is, and why

The intent is to help students combine performance psychology and well being into their own pursuits of their own crafts. Whatever a student is chasing, the internal work of chasing it is a skill, and it is one we rarely teach directly. This series is one of the ways we are building who GSCG is.

It connects to how I think growth actually happens. You grow by building new associations between emotions, thoughts, and sensations, associations you can reference later and build on. That is the foundation underneath everything we are doing with EMI, and the series is one vehicle for it. Students hear people they respect name the hard mental and emotional work behind a pursuit, and that gives them concrete language and reference points for what they are already feeling themselves but may not have words for.

The mechanism, and why student athletes

The mechanism is worth naming plainly, because it is the reason the format works. Bringing in student athletes creates vicarious experiences that students can reference. A business student who has never competed still recognizes something true when an athlete describes the anxiety before a competition or the self doubt inside a slump. The craft differs. The mental and emotional work does not.

This is also a bridge to Jesuit values, and a way to help students leverage the sports identities they already carry. Those identities take more forms than people assume: competitor, former athlete, lifelong participant, student of the game, admirer from the stands. Using that identity as a lens is what makes performance psychology concrete and accessible rather than abstract, and it moves students closer to the whole person formation the university is after.

The four sessions

Nothing below is booked. Speaker identified means we have the person in mind and the conversation is live, not that a date is on the calendar.

Do hard things

Panel being identified

Fall / Principle: do hard things

A panel of four student athletes on the hard things they do for their mind, not the hard things of the craft itself. The reframe is the entire point. We spend plenty of time championing craft outcomes, winning a tournament, earning an accolade, and nowhere near enough on the hard work of preparing the mind and handling the emotions while pursuing that craft.

The panel reflects on mental blocks, the emotional work, self doubt, focus, and managing pressure. Those are the things students carry quietly, and hearing them named out loud by someone who competes is what makes them discussable.

Planned composition

  • One male golfer
  • One baseball player
  • Two women's volleyball players

Athletes are being identified now. The composition above is the plan for the panel, not a confirmed roster.

As the first session it sets the tone, and it opens the conversation about mind, body, and craft inside the business school. It is also where we begin gathering data on what students struggle with mentally and emotionally, which informs the sessions that follow and the programming we build with EMI.

Commit to growth

Speaker identified

Fall / Principle: commit to growth

Mike Nelson, who has a strong following around commitment, on what commitment means to him and how it shapes his approach to growth.

As with every session, the topic draws back to the mindfulness foundation underneath all of this: emotions, thoughts, and sensations. Commitment is a useful entry point precisely because most people experience it as a decision, when in practice it is something you feel and renegotiate with yourself constantly.

Support each other's growth

In development

Spring / Principle: support each other's growth

We want a coach for this one, someone who can speak to coaching and growing others rather than only to praising them. The distinction matters, because supporting someone's growth often means saying the harder thing well.

The women's basketball coach would be ideal. She is also very busy, so this session is still in development on the speaker side and is the one most likely to move or change shape.

Have fun

Speaker identified

Spring / Principle: have fun

Travis Knight of the Extra Mile Institute, on how he incorporates fun into the training and development work he does, using the basketball team as the concrete example.

Fun is the principle people are quickest to treat as the light one. Travis makes the opposite case, that fun sits at the foundation of high performance rather than as a reward for it, and he has the practice to back it up.

Why we are doing this, and what comes next

This series is one half of a larger effort with EMI to build a culture of internal growth at GSCG. The other half is the step back sessions, which embed reflection directly into meetings we are already holding. The speaker series raises awareness across the group; the step back sessions turn that awareness into a habit. Neither does much alone.

The intent over time is to conduct studies and genuinely understand what our students struggle with, so that we can develop programming that combines performance and well being psychology rather than treating them as separate concerns. The sessions are how we start listening at scale. What we hear in the first one shapes the ones after it.

What each of us owns

This does not move without both sides doing their part, so here is the split for this direction as we left it. The two items marked as open questions are unresolved. They sit on our side because we are the ones who need to find the answer, not because we have decided anything.

GSCG owns

  • Assign someone to scheduling and logistics for guest speakers.
  • Determine whether the speaker sessions can be recorded. Open question
  • Confirm whether EMI can share the sessions on their social media. Open question

EMI owns

  • Develop the material.
  • Handle logistics and operations.
  • Help GSCG execute and plan the rollout.

Ways to engage with GSCG through these events

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