An experiential learning course in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has had a lasting impact on both Brock students and the local community.

A group of nearly two dozen Sport Management students and women’s rugby players spent two weeks in TCI last term teaching local children and youth rugby skills while sharing messages of resilience, empowerment and education.

The fourth-year Sport for Development course led by Associate Professor of Sport Management Laura Cousens investigates how sport can achieve broader social objectives by identifying social issues unique to the community, designing a sport development program to address them and then delivering the program within the community.

“Several reports, mainly from the United Nations, identify high dropout rates for both elementary and high school students in the TCI,” said Cousens. “Our main goal with the project was to encourage children to stay in school and not join gangs, which have been growing in recent years.”

To accomplish this, Brock students collaborated with the Turks and Caicos Islands Rugby Football Union (TCIRFU) to organize and deliver rugby programming to more than 1,000 children and teens in elementary and high schools on three islands in TCI. They taught participants the fundamental skills needed to play the sport and encouraged them to join the team.

“It’s a stay-in-school club disguised as a rugby club,” said Cousens. “If children play rugby, they’ll go to school.”

Brock students also highlighted scholarship opportunities available to children who play rugby and engaged them in experiential learning initiatives about resilience, supporting others and belonging to a community.

“Before we even arrived in TCI, we looked at how we could make a positive impact beyond rugby practice so the children would have resilience tools for the rest of their lives, not only to help themselves but also so they could help others,” said Laura Brown, third-year Kinesiology student and Brock rugby player.

Students gave participants bracelets with positive messages written on them and created Bingo-like cards featuring achievable goals, such as making a new friend, supporting a teammate and giving someone a high-five.

“The kids loved them, not only for the feeling of success by checking off boxes on their cards, but they also encouraged each other and wore the cards on a Brock lanyard around their necks like medals,” said Brown.

The discussions and activities around resilience, sport and community culminated in a two-day national rugby tournament involving 215 elementary and high school students.

“Our team designed the brackets, invited the media, planned the spectator experience, refereed games and even cooked hotdogs, all the while cheering on our classmates and engaging with the kids,” said James Ruddy, a fourth-year Sport Management student.

The experience of implementing a sport for development program within the community went above and beyond the important lessons Ruddy and others have learned in the classroom. Although Ruddy is familiar with the foundational elements of sport development, it wasn’t until this experience that he really understood “what it takes to make it work,” he said.

“We had to overcome a lot of challenges, and it took a lot of grit and adaptability. The intangible skills we learned from stepping into roles we’ve never done before and feeling the pressure of hosting a national tournament in a foreign country is something that will stay with us forever,” he said.

Brown’s biggest takeaway from the experience was the positive impact role modelling had on the children.

“The environment we created was such an important aspect of the program. The way we gave positive affirmations and encouraged teamwork is important in helping kids grow,” she said.

“We left them with many resources, but I also think we gave them a lot of hope and visions of the opportunities they can have by continuing with school and belonging to a team and a community.”