STATESBORO - Georgia Southern women's basketball rising junior Jordan Strange participated in the Athletes In Action Virtual Leadership Academy this May. An annual program normally held in person in Ohio, the Academy moved to a virtual setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strange was one of 50 players selected to participate in the Academy, which included student-athletes from 25 different universities across the nation. The purpose of the Academy is to equip, empower and encourage student-athletes to be competent, confident and effective team leaders. 

The Academy took place on May 15-17, with two hour sessions each day. Guest speakers for the session included Mike Petersen, assistant coach for the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, as well as Ariel Atkins, who plays in the WNBA for the Washington Mystics.

"When we started on the first day, I was definitely - not nervous, but anxious to see what it was going to be about. I've never done anything like this before," Strange said. "But our first speakers were really good, talking about the main points of being a leader. it opened my eyes to a lot of things, about me becoming a leader and about growing up to become a young woman.

"Our second day, we heard from professional players who answered all our questions and told us stories about becoming leaders. About how they didn't get liked all of the time, but sometimes that's ok. A leader has to walk alone sometimes, but eventually people will start following them."

The virtual attendees were split into groups throughout the weekend, and Strange was in a group with fellow student-athletes from the University of Georgia, the University of North Florida and Georgia State University. 

"We shared our experiences of what we've come across and what challenges we might face coming into this season, with the pandemic," Strange said. "It's going to be hard to get to know our incoming freshman and transfers better, so we were asking about how we can be a help to them. And Coach Petersen, on the last day, talked to us from a coach's perspective about how chemistry is a big part of making a team better."

And what was one big takeaway that Strange feels she could bring to her teammates for the upcoming 2020-2021 season?

"Definitely learning how to be more of a vocal leader," Strange said. "Last year, we had six seniors on the team, so I was more reserved. This year, since we have a lot of freshman and transfers coming in, it's going to be really important for me to speak up more. Just be that vocal leader, and being somebody my teammates can come up to and we can have conversations about anything, even outside of basketball."

A native of Columbia, S.C., Strange has played in all 59 games for the Eagles in her first two seasons in Statesboro. She is a 2018-19 Sun Belt Conference Academic Commissioner's List honoree;