A number of the students who have finished the concentration have gone on to careers as teachers and coaches. Several have gone on to professional sports careers and hope to become coaches, including JeRod Cherry, who now plays football for the New Orleans Saints. Van Rheenen is himself a case of how stereotypes mislead-contrary to the image of the jock who cannot succeed academically, Van Rheenen has triumphed at both sports and scholarship. He was the captain of Cal's soccer team during his undergraduate years, went on to a professional career as captain of the national champion San Francisco Bay Blackhawks, and then came back to do his Ph.D. at Cal, where he was advised by Professor Simons and by Professor Anne Dyson. Van Rheenen went on to win last year's Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Graduate School of Education.
Freshman year is pivotal in determining the identity athletes have on campus.
We want to encourage their academic and intellectual potential early on rather than let them think of themselves solely as athletes. It was an environment where I could express myself in discussions. I liked the way the course dealt with topics like gender equality and male dominance in sports. One student in this section, for instance, was an Olympic Bronze Medalist in gymnastics from the Ukraine, but was unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet when he came to this country. Thanks in part to the tutoring he received in Education 98, he is now making passing grades.