Name: Andrew Bachus

UC Email: bachusar@mail.uc.edu
College: College of Engineering and Applied Science
Major: Biomedical Engineering/Pre-Medicine
Project Title: Special Olympics Coaching
Thematic Area: Leadership
Expected Project Start Date: January 12, 2015
Expected Project End Date: May 4, 2015
1. Provide a Detailed Abstract of Your Proposed Honors Experiential Learning Project
Throughout high school, I had volunteered through numerous service opportunities, ranging from helping
out at a nursing home to helping pack religious materials to be sent off to prisons. Yet one service
opportunity that stood out to me the most and has remained one of my favorite means of service would be
helping mentally disabled children and adolescents play basketball through the Special Olympics
Organization. While I was not technically the overall coach of the team, I volunteered by helping the
coach facilitate practice, which included duties such as ensuring players understood and built upon
fundamental concepts, organizing players for certain drills, and overseeing that these drills ran smoothly.
My role in this service project also extended to organizing and leading others who volunteered alongside
me, which included recruiting volunteers, organizing sign-ups for practices, communicating to volunteers
when practices were, and keeping track of service hours for each volunteer.
Through my self-designed honors experience, I will take up the role of coaching my own basketball team
comprised of developmentally delayed young adults through the Special Olympics. In coaching this team,
I will begin by teaching the basic fundamentals of basketball, eventually leading into more advanced
essentials of the game through various drills and activities. My leadership role as coach will be two-fold,
as I will lead a team of players through practices while extending my previous role of organizing
volunteers to help out with the practices. Through this role, I aim to teach the game of basketball to
developmentally delayed people who may not usually be included in athletic events and to allow students
at UC or even others in the community the opportunity for volunteer work and the chance to work and
connect with those who are mentally disabled.
My project will span over a time of about sixteen weeks, as shown in the projected start and end times
above. While there is much responsibility that entails as a part of my experience, I have been able to
specifically determine what duties I will accomplish weekly along with the time needed for these duties. I
will hold a practice each week lasting an hour and a half, review the academic readings I have chosen for
the project for about two and a half to three hours a week, plan practices (which includes organizing the
volunteers), and keep a reflective log or journal of all my activities, which combined will take about an
hour each week. Overall, this self-designed experience will include 80-88 total hours of my time in order
to execute all that needs to be done.
I am proposing this self-designed honors experience because I have been able to see in my past
experiences with Special Olympics that working with those who are developmentally delayed is a very
worthwhile opportunity that many do not take advantage of. Personally, serving others has become a
passion of mine, and fortunately I have been able to find, through Special Olympics, an enjoyable way of
living out this passion. I believe that in making this honors experience related to the thematic area of
leadership, I am extending this service opportunity so that it does not only include myself; rather, I can
enlighten others about volunteering for Special Olympics and overall encourage and promote service in
the community.

Clearly and Thoroughly Address How Each of the Following Elements Will Be Exhibited in Your
Work:
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes Within the Honors Thematic Area (Identified Above)
Identifies the Various Characteristics of a Leader in a Given Situation/Role
As the coach of a basketball team, I know that I will often find myself in many different situations while
my role as coach is much more specific. In my role as coach, I know that I will have the task of leading
both the players through practice as well as the volunteers in teaching them certain drills or guiding them
towards their duties. Specifically, through teaching the fundamentals of basketball to my team, I will have
to plan ahead for practice to ensure that I am able to cover the basics of basketball while allowing my
team to have fun at the same time. My role as coach for my team will be to make sure at the end of
practices that those participating on my team have a basic understanding of how to play basketball, and
this can only be accomplished if I lead throughout the project. Along with my role in this project, I
understand that I will also be placed in certain, possibly difficult situations in which I will need to use my
qualities as a leader to work it out. The main characteristic that I will need to possess for many situations
is to be dynamic, or willing to work with a changing situation. While I will plan out practice and how I
will teach basketball, I understand that not everything will go to plan, therefore I will have to think
quickly if a drill doesnt work out or if my message is not getting across to players or volunteers. Since
leadership comes with possessing many characteristics, I will have to determine which characteristics to
apply for each situation I encounter, which again ties into being dynamic as a leader.
Has the Ability to Relate, Communicate, and Work Effectively with Peers
Communication is highly important in any relationship, therefore in my situation I will ensure early on
that I make connections with each player and volunteer. I want to make it known at the first practice to
those whom I will be working with that if they have any questions, concerns, or fresh ideas, then they
should come directly to me in order to talk it over. Communication with those volunteering with the team
will be highly beneficial, as I will have to go over with them how each drill or activity works, and I must
be clear with each of them their certain role in that activity. I must also make sure that I do not reach the
point where I micromanage their tasks, for I must allow volunteers to work on their own when I
commission them to perform a task. Communication will also be important with the team members
themselves while at the same time it may become difficult. Since I have experience in working with those
who are developmentally delayed, I know that at times it can become difficult to talk to them or ask them
to do something for their disability might be related to communicating with others. Though my
experience in working with the developmentally delayed is beneficial, I realize that additional study into
communication may be necessary, which is addressed in the Academic Theories and Reading section of
my proposal.
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories (include reference list, as appropriate)
A. This project is relatable to my development in multiple ways, which include how I work in a
situation where I lead different groups of people and how I can integrate leadership into service.
Being a coach while organizing a group of volunteers will be beneficial to my growth as a leader
as it will allow me experience in managing two different groups who have differing, specific
needs which may need my assistance. This experience itself can ultimately benefit me in being an
early experience of a situation where I have the role of overseeing multiple teams or groups at the
same time. As an engineer, I may someday find myself in a situation in my career where I am
managing multiple groups working on different projects in which leadership skills tailored to this
situation will be needed. This project will also allow me the opportunity to integrate serving
others and leading others. While there have been many times where I have served others, never
have I had the opportunity to lead others as I serve them. Though this may seem like an odd,

oxymoronic combination, I believe it is an opportunity through which I can experiment and see
how well such a situation works. For me, being a basketball coach will be a learning experience
itself, for through reflection I will look at what I did right along with what I did wrong, and I will
grow from my successes in coaching this team and build upon and correct what I may have done
wrong.
B. Through the duration of my project, there are two different types of readings I will be studying in
order to lead this project and become a better coach and leader by the end. In terms of leadership,
I will be studying the theory of Servant Leadership, an idea brought about by Robert Greenleaf
through which leaders put the needs of others before their own in hopes to perform in the
greatest efficiency. Books I will read in order to learn more about this method include:
The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership by James C. Hunter
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by
Robert K. Greenleaf
Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving by
James W. Sipe and Don M. Frick
I also will be studying certain readings on how to better communicate with the developmentally
delayed in order that I am better able to understand the needs of those team members during my
project. Readings for this certain area will be taken from multiple sources, including:
Communicating With and About People with Disabilities, United States Department of
Labor
Communicating Effectively With People Who Have a Disability, North Dakota Center for
Persons with Disabilities
Communication with Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Psychiatric
Disabilities: A Summary of the Literature by Walton O. Schalick, III, Cecelia Westbrook,
and Brittany Young
4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity
While the idea of coaching a team with players who have disabilities is not new at all, the fact that I am
using this experience as both a leadership opportunity as well as a service opportunity is what makes it
unique. Coaching a basketball team might seem like a challenging task in itself, yet I have decided to also
turn this into a service opportunity in order to allow others who may have never helped those with special
needs to see what the service is like and how truly rewarding it is. My role as leader for my team and for
the volunteers will be a challenging role, yet I know my past experiences of leading others and of working
with the mentally disabled will benefit me in the undertaking of this project. My driving force in going
through with this project will be simply to see those on my team enjoy playing basketball through
learning the sport. I have learned from previously helping out with a Special Olympics basketball team
that those with disabilities do not always have the opportunity to participate in athletics or sports;
therefore, those who partake in basketball through Special Olympics truly enjoy the time they spend on
the court and cherish the moments where they are able to play.

5. Reflection
As I stated in the Abstract of my proposal, I will keep a journal of my activities related to the project as
my main mode of reflection. I will write about every aspect of the project, including taking notes while
and after studying the academic theories/readings, writing a detailed itinerary of each practice, explaining
the methods by which I organized the volunteers, and reflecting on each practice, which would include
which activities worked and which did not, along with what I could improve on. The purpose of reflecting
on so many aspects of this project is so that I have something to study and look over in case I decide to
again coach a Special Olympics team or even if I find myself in another situation where I am leading
multiple groups at once. I hope that though the reflection I will be able to learn from any mistakes and
build upon any successes in order that I can become a better leader overall.
6. Dissemination
In sharing my experience, I will definitely implement my journal as means of what I accomplished and
how I did it. While I may not use my entire journal in order to talk about my project and how I coached
my team, I will take out certain pages or sections which I believe include the most important information
on how this experience allowed me to grow as a leader and better take control of my team. Since I began
my service with Special Olympics during my time at La Salle High School, I would present my project to
two different extra-curricular organizations at my alma mater: Key Club and Student Government, both of
which I was a highly vocal member of. Key Club was actually the organization through which I
performed service with Special Olympics, meaning I could present on my project at a general meeting in
order to encourage current members to become involved with Special Olympics and to take a leadership
role while serving. Presenting to members of Student Government would also be beneficial as I could
show them how to implement leadership within the community since they will be learning about how to
lead others throughout the school year.
Along with presenting to my high school, I will also document this experience on my Honors Learning
Portfolio. I will post the entire journal on my learning portfolio, along with a reflection after my project is
completed stating overall what I was able to learn from my experience as a coach and also what I can
build upon as a leader.
7. Project Advisor
Janet Smith, Special Olympics Executive Director
4790 Red Bank Expressway
Suite 206
Cincinnati, Ohio 45227
(513) 271-2606
8. Budget
The only items that would require funding from University Honors would be basketballs to use during
practice and the funds for a gymnasium in the area for weekly practices, both of which may already be
funded by the Special Olympics.