OLYMPIAN and Chair of the country’s Athlete’s Commission, Chelsea Edghill, says the Goal Sports Scholarship program provides a tremendous opportunity for the nation’s athletes from an educational standpoint.
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) last week launched their groundbreaking scholarship with the goals of strengthening sports in Guyana through education.
Chelsea Edghill, a 2-time Olympian and multiple-time national table tennis champion who has always been the lookout for opportunities for local athletes, believes this will have a major impact on athletes on and off the field.
“Athletes transitioning to having opportunities for education is a really good one, and I think the goal program really helps tremendously with that, especially for athletes that are thinking about getting into the sporting field. They don’t want to be coaches, but there are other things available; they are coaching programs under the goal. It is good to have options and open your horizon to what might be possible.”
The program is the first for Guyana; it will offer a variety of certificates and master’s courses intended to drive sports growth in scope and substance.
The program is offering free certificates to Guyanese in nutrition and dietetics, bodybuilding, and sport facilities management with master’s degrees, including sports journalism, athletics coaching, coaching, and sports psychology, among other courses.
Edghill has long had an excellent balance between education and play. She started to play while attending Bishop High School, moved onto Lindenwood University, where she played while successfully completing her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and then played professionally in Europe for a few years.
Edghill, then completing her postgraduate certificate in International Sports Management at the University of London, says that her education has aided her growth in her sport.
She told the Guyana Chronicle that before the launch of the Goal scholarship last week, she applied and was accepted to the prestigious Loughborough University in England, where she will read for a master’s in sports analysis and AI while preparing to represent Guyana at the next Olympic Games.
Provide you can excel in the classroom and on the court.
She says you can excel in the classroom and on the court and will continue to encourage athletes to take the educational opportunities which can have a lasting effect on the country’s athletes, especially after their playing days.
“What is out there is immense; there are so many things with technology and work that are being done in sport and athlete development around the world that I have been fortunate enough to experience. It is really good to have that education to understand what it means and what they are doing. When I played internationally or when I competed in Europe, it was one of those things where you saw them doing certain exercises or doing certain tests in preparation for competition, and you were trying to figure out what it was they were doing.”
She says that understanding the science behind the sport can go a long way in helping athletes to go from good to elite athletes and encourage locals to apply to further their education using the GOAL program.
The application process for the Goal Sports scholarship commenced on September 4th and concludes on September 18th.
